This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-crimea-fire.html

The article has changed 12 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 2 Version 3
Large Fuel Tank Fire Burns in Crimea After Suspected Drone Attack Large Fire Burns at Crimea Fuel Depot After Suspected Drone Attack
(about 2 hours later)
A fuel depot in the port city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea was engulfed in an enormous fire early Saturday, which a local Kremlin-appointed official said was caused by a drone strike. KYIV, Ukraine — A fuel depot in the port city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea was hit by two drones and engulfed in an enormous fire early Saturday, a Russian official said.
The city on the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, is home to the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet and is important to its dominance in the sea. Preliminary information indicated that the fire was caused by a drone, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, wrote on the Telegram messaging app. He did not say who might have been behind an attack. A thick cloud of black smoke darkened the skies above the port city, which is home to the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet. The Kremlin-appointed local governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, urged residents to remain calm as teams of firefighters battled a blaze that he said was caused by “enemy drones.”
Russian officials have blamed Ukrainian forces for repeated drone strikes on Sevastopol, on the peninsula’s southwestern tip. Ukraine typically maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity about strikes in Crimea. “The main thing is that no one was hurt,” Mr. Razvozhaev told reporters at a news conference. “With the rest — we’ll figure it out.”
Photographs and video footage posted online, including by the governor, showed a column of dark smoke spewing into the sky and spreading across the surrounding areas. The Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014 and has been heavily fortified after nine years under Russian control, plays a vital role in the Kremlin’s war effort.
The fire at Kazachya Bay was burning an area of about 10,000 square feet, Mr. Razvozhaev said. He said that there were no casualties and that no civilian structures had been threatened, but that the blaze was difficult to contain because of the large volume of fuel that was burning. It was a key staging ground when President Vladimir V. Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago and remains critically important to Moscow’s control over occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine.
The Crimean Peninsula has been a staging ground for other attacks and an increasingly attractive target for Ukraine — especially in the run-up to a widely anticipated counteroffensive. The peninsula has been a regular target of drone attacks, though Ukraine typically maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity. Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on Saturday’s blaze.
While the details of that campaign are a closely guarded secret, military analysts predict that Ukraine might be looking to drive a wedge through Russian-occupied territory along the southern coasts of the Black and Azov Seas, near Crimea. As Ukrainian officials say the country is in the final stages of preparation for a counteroffensive to take back territory seized by Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelensky has maintained that Kyiv needs to reclaim control of Crimea in order to prevent future aggression by Moscow.
He reiterated that position in an interview published on Saturday by the Finnish channel Yle, saying that the more weapons the West can provide to Ukraine, the faster the war will end.
“We want to save as many lives as possible, so the number of weapons matters,” he said.
Part of Ukraine’s argument in asking for longer-range missiles from its allies has been that it wants to be able to strike deeper behind Russian lines, including in Crimea. The Biden administration so far has held a hard line against doing so, fearing it could provoke the Kremlin.
It is often unclear how Ukrainian forces are able to hit Russian targets in Crimea but the attacks have become increasingly bold.
In August, explosions rocked a Russian air base in Saki. Ukraine claimed credit for the attack two months later, when Kyiv’s top commander, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, wrote that the military had targeted a number of Crimean military sites, including the air base, to undermine Russia’s military capabilities and stoke worries in Moscow about the security of areas it considered to be out of reach of Ukrainian weapons.
In October, an explosion severely damaged the only bridge linking Crimea to Russia, a deep embarrassment for the Kremlin. Since then, Ukraine is believed to have been behind several high-profile attacks on Russian ships anchored at the port in Sevastopol.
As Ukrainian forces set the stage for the long-expected counteroffensive, assaults on the peninsula, including attacks on rail links and other vital infrastructure, have increased.
At the same time, Russian forces have been building up their defensive positions across the already heavily militarized peninsula. Satellite photos published by private firms in recent weeks reveal a growing network of trenches and other fortifications.
While Ukrainian officials cheer the attacks on Crimea, the military typically does not take credit in order to maintain operational secrecy. Kyiv does not want Moscow to know what long-range weapons it has at its disposal, even as they engage in ambitious fund-raising campaigns to expand their fleet of long-range aerial and maritime drones, officials say.
On Saturday, the billowing smoke from the fire at the oil depot on Kazachya Bay could be seen for miles. It was burning an area of about 10,000 square feet, Mr. Razvozhaev said. He said there would be no evacuation of the local area and fuel supplies for drivers would not be impacted.
Uman attack: Rescuers were still combing the rubble in the central Ukrainian city of Uman on Saturday after a Russian strike there a day earlier killed 23 people, including five children. Officials said that the rescue operation had been going on for more than 30 hours.Uman attack: Rescuers were still combing the rubble in the central Ukrainian city of Uman on Saturday after a Russian strike there a day earlier killed 23 people, including five children. Officials said that the rescue operation had been going on for more than 30 hours.
Russian shelling: In Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, shelling in the town of Bilozerka hit a hospital and several private homes, killing a 57-year-old woman in her own home and injuring three more people, the regional military administration said on Friday evening.Russian shelling: In Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, shelling in the town of Bilozerka hit a hospital and several private homes, killing a 57-year-old woman in her own home and injuring three more people, the regional military administration said on Friday evening.