Russia blames sabotage for ‘state of emergency’ in Crimea, sees ‘no need’ for nuclear weapons in Ukraine: Live updates
Massive explosions and fires ripped through Crimea on Tuesday, forcing 3,000 residents to flee their homes as the war in Ukraine appears to be spreading to the peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014.
The Russian Defense Ministry blamed “sabotage” for explosions at a military warehouse near Dzhankoya. Power lines, a power plant, a railway track and a number of residential buildings were damaged, the ministry said in a statement obtained by the Russian news outlet Kommersant. The explosion was described as a diversion.
No serious injuries were reported. Another fire was reported at a power substation, but officials did not indicate whether it was related to the ammunition blast. “We are in a state of emergency,” said Sergey Aksenov, the Russian leader of the Crimean administration.
Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak did not say the country claimed responsibility for the incident but tweeted that, “Crimea of normal country is about the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism, but Crimea occupied by Russians is about warehouses explosions and high risk of death for invaders and thieves.”
Last week, the Russian military blamed a series of explosions at Crimea’s Saki air base on an accidental detonation of munitions there, but the incident appeared to be a Ukrainian attack. Kyiv said the explosions destroyed nine Russian airplanes.
The deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, warned last month that attacks on Crimea could result in a “doomsday, very quick and tough, immediately.”
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Latest developments:
►German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he believes Sweden and Finland will be able to join NATO “very quickly.” Scholz said Turkey, which had balked, appears satisfied and that the other six nations that have not approved the expansion would likely do so soon.
►Swiss chocolate-maker Lindt Sprüngli Group announced it will “exit the Russian market.” The company had temporarily suspended operations in March.
►More than 1,350 bodies of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian occupiers have been found in the Kyiv region, regional Police Chief Andrii Niebytov said.
►The Russian Federal Security Service accused Ukraine of blowing up power transmission towers three times this month near a nuclear plant in the western Russia city of Kursk.
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Contributing: The Associated Press