Ukraine says 9 Russian fighter planes destroyed in Crimea explosion

KIEV, UKRAINE Nine fighter planes have been destroyed in a series of deadly explosions at an air force base in Crimea.

denied that it had taken place. However, satellite imagery clearly showed that at least seven fighters at the base had been blown up and others were probably damaged.

Ukrainian officials It declined to publicly claim responsibility for the blast, while mocking Russia's explanation that cautious smokers may have ignited and detonated ammunition at Saki Air Force Base. Analysts also said the explanation was nonsensical and that the Ukrainians may have used anti-ship missiles to attack the base. If so, it would be the first known large-scale attack on a Russian military installation in Crimea, which was seized from Ukraine by the Kremlin in 2014. attacked.

Crimea is of strategic and symbolic importance to both sides. The Kremlin's demand that Ukraine recognize Crimea as part of Russia is one of the key conditions for ending hostilities, while Ukraine must expel Russians from the peninsula and all other occupied territories. swore

The blast, which killed one person and injured 14, sent tourists into a panic and sent smoke billowing over a nearby coastline. The video showed shattered windows and holes in the brickwork of some buildings.

Tourist Natalia Lipovaya said after a powerful blast, "the earth was gone under my feet." "I was so scared," she said.

Local resident Sergey Milochinski recalled hearing a roar from his window and seeing a mushroom cloud. "Everything started falling apart," he said.

Crimea's regional leader Sergei Aksyonov said about 250 residents were moved to temporary housing after dozens of apartment buildings were damaged. said.

Russian authorities on Wednesday tried to downplay the blast, saying all hotels and beaches on the peninsula, a popular tourist destination for many Russians, were unaffected.But social media A video posted on the . Confidentially stated that the explosion was caused by either a Ukrainian-made long-range weapon or the work of Ukrainian guerrillas operating in Crimea.

Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Zavitnevich said to be disabled. He reported on Facebook that it houses fighter planes, tactical reconnaissance planes and military transport planes.

A satellite image dated Wednesday issued by Planet Labs PBC showed wreckage at the location of the airfield where the company's photos the previous day had shown a large number of fighter planes. rice field.

"Officially Kyiv is tight-lipped about it, but the military unofficially admits it was a Ukrainian attack," said Oleh Zhdanov, a Ukrainian military analyst. rice field.

The base is at least 200 km (approximately 125 miles) from the nearest Ukrainian location. Zhdanov suggested that the Ukrainian military could have attacked with Ukrainian or Western-supplied anti-ship missiles with the required range.

The Washington-based War Research Institute said it could not independently determine the cause of the explosions, but if two explosions occurred simultaneously on the base, it was likely an accidental fire. is excluded, but sabotage and missiles are not. attack.

However, "the Kremlin has little incentive to blame Ukraine for the attacks that caused the damage.

During the war, the Kremlin reported numerous fires and explosions on Russian territory near the Ukrainian border, some of them in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have largely remained silent about the incident.

Neither side has released much information about their own casualties. In Wednesday's nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that nearly 43,000 Russian soldiers had been killed.

Colin Carle, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, estimated on Monday that Russian forces have suffered up to 80,000 casualties in the fighting. He did not break down the figures with an estimate of troops killed or provide Ukrainian casualty figures.

The shelling of areas across Ukraine from Tuesday night through Wednesday killed 13 people, including in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, said the region's governor, Valentyn Reznichenko.

Reznichenko said the Russians opened fire on the city of Marganets and nearby villages. Dozens of houses, two schools and several administrative buildings were damaged.

"It was a terrible night," Reznichenko said. "It is very difficult to get bodies out of the rubble. We are facing a savage enemy who terrorizes our cities and villages every day."

In eastern Ukraine, where fighting has raged for eight years, a Russian attack on the center of the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region has killed seven, injured six, damaged shops, houses and apartments, and set it on fire. , the Prosecutor General of Ukraine said in a telegram. Bakhmut is a key target for Russian forces as they advance into regional strongholds.

In the city of Donetsk, under Russian-backed separatist rule since 2014, Ukrainian artillery fire hits a brewery, separatist emergency services One of them died and two were injured. He said. It said shelling late Wednesday caused a leak of toxic ammonia and warned people to stay indoors and breathe through cotton gauze. A man was killed in a Russian shelling on Wednesday, police said.

In the southeastern part of Russia, Moscow forces continued to bombard the city of Nikopol across the Dnieper from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhia power plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling, fueling international fears of catastrophe.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the advanced democracies of the Group of Seven (G7) countries called on Russia to immediately return full control of the factory to Ukraine. They said they were "deeply concerned" about the risk of a nuclear accident with far-reaching consequences.