According to the Washington Post, citing an anonymous Ukrainian source, the attack was carried out by Ukrainian special forces. The Ukrainian official did not provide any more precise information about what happened. Experts had previously suspected it could have been a partisan attack. Shortly after the attack, the Russian side spoke of an accident.
The US media also reports, with reference to an official close to the government, that no US weapons are said to have been used in the attack.
According to Ukrainian sources, at least ten aircraft were destroyed by the explosions.
“After the explosion that we saw, it is clear that the Air Force contingent was hit,” Ukrainian Air Force Staff spokesman Yuri Ihnat said on TV on Wednesday. According to Ihnat, Sukhoi Su-30M and Su-24 combat aircraft and Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft are stationed there.
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The Saki military base in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, was hit hard by explosions on Tuesday. Videos show that detonations occurred in at least two different places. According to official information from Moscow, a violation of fire safety rules is responsible for the incident.
One person was killed, Crimean boss Sergei Aksjonov said, according to Russian agencies. Seven other people, including two children, were injured, according to local sources. First it was said that there were no victims.
Many observers, on the other hand, assume a Ukrainian attack. The leadership in Kyiv has not taken responsibility for the explosions. However, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter: “This is just the beginning.”
According to military experts at the US Institute for the Study of the War, the Russian leadership does not want to admit a Ukrainian attack for image reasons. Then Moscow would have to admit that its air defenses had failed, the institute said in its analysis.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again promised his compatriots that the peninsula would be liberated in the course of the war. “Crimea is Ukrainian and we will never give it up,” he said Tuesday night.
With the annexation in 2014, Russia turned Crimea into one of the most dangerous places. “The Black Sea region cannot be safe as long as Crimea is occupied,” said Zelenskyy. “This Russian war against Ukraine, against all free Europe, started with Crimea and must end with Crimea, with its liberation.”
The cause of the massive explosions on the peninsula is still unclear. As of Tuesday morning, around 40 fighter jets were on the site, as can be seen on satellite images. There are also some helicopters. Earlier, the Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported that no military equipment had been damaged.
Two eyewitnesses told Reuters news agency that there were at least 12 detonations in total. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said it could not say what caused the explosions. But there is a risk that Russia will falsify evidence of an alleged Ukrainian attack.
August 9 is the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram. In Ukraine, these included the Crimean Tatars, the Karaims and the Crimean Chaks. “Today’s explosions in Novofyodorovka are further evidence of who owns Crimea.”
A source in the Russian Defense Ministry cited a violation of fire safety rules at the Saki base as the most likely cause. “There are no signs, evidence or even facts that the ammunition was deliberately detonated.” According to the information, the aircraft were not damaged.
The airfield is located about 60 kilometers north of Sevastopol on the western side of the Crimean peninsula. Russia is to launch its airstrikes on southern Ukraine from the military airfield, reports Ukrainska Pravda.
Tourists fled the area near the seaside resort of Yevpatoria in a hurry. Aksyonov said an area within a five-kilometer radius around the base had been cordoned off. The fire was brought under control by evening. He did not comment on the cause of the explosion.
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Observers assumed an act of sabotage because the Ukrainian troops on the mainland are more than 200 kilometers away. According to military expert Gustav Gressel, if the explosions are an attack, Ukraine may have used self-developed Grom missiles. “Which, however, relied on US-supplied anti-radar missiles to punch a hole in Russian air defenses,” he wrote on Twitter.
The Himars rocket launchers, which the Ukrainian military received from the US, only have a range of about 80 kilometers. The Mars II rocket launchers supplied by Germany only fire about 70 kilometers. Some Twitter users speculate that Ukraine may have received missiles with even longer ranges. Gressel contradicts this, saying that the arms deliveries have not yet progressed that far.
As early as Tuesday morning, a Russian ammunition depot in southern Cherson near Crimea – more than 150 kilometers behind the front line – is said to have exploded.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. In the course of the war of aggression that began at the end of February, Moscow repeatedly demanded that Crimea be recognized as Russian territory – which Kyiv clearly rejects. Internationally, too, the peninsula with its more than two million inhabitants continues to be regarded as Ukrainian territory. (Tsp with Reuters/dpa/AFP)
