- A fire at a military training field in annexed Crimea prompting authorities to order the evacuation of more than 2 000 civilians.
- Several Russian online media outlets reported that detonations had been audible in the area for over two hours.
- A section of the Tavrida highway that crosses the peninsula had been closed due to the fire.
A fire broke out on Wednesday at a military training field in annexed Crimea, the Russian-installed governor said, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of more than 2 000 civilians.
Authorities did not specify the cause of the blaze, but some Russian media reported that detonations were heard in the area and footage showed columns of black smoke in the sky.
The news comes after Ukraine this week used waterborne drones to attack the Kerch bridge, a key military supply artery from mainland Russia to annexed Crimea.
“The temporary evacuation of residents of four localities adjacent to the military field in the Kirovsky district is planned. That’s more than 2 000 people,” said the Moscow-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov.
A section of the Tavrida highway that crosses the peninsula had been closed due to the fire.
Footage posted on the Telegram account of state-backed Izvestia newspaper purporting to show footage of the fire showed plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.
Several Russian online media outlets reported that detonations had been audible in the area for over two hours.
Bus traffic on interregional routes had been “temporarily redirected”, Nikolay Lukashenko, the head of Crimea’s transport ministry, wrote on messaging app Telegram.
The Tavrida highway connects the eastern Crimean port of Kerch to the port of Sevastopol on the peninsula’s Black Sea coast.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence denied that its head Kyrylo Budanov had issued a comment on the fire in Crimea.
Spokesperson Andriy Yusov told broadcaster Suspilne that comments carried by several media outlets “that the explosion at the training ground in Crimea was the work of the armed forces and the GUR is a fake”.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a move not recognised by the international community.
Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to take back the peninsula.
