Russia annexed and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
A drone attack on an ammunition depot in Crimea prompted authorities to evacuate a 5-km (3-mile) radius and briefly suspended road traffic on a bridge linking the peninsula to Russia, the region’s Moscow-based governor said on Saturday.
Ukraine said its forces destroyed an oil depot and Russian military warehouses in the “provisionally occupied” district of Oktyabrsky in central Crimea.
Russia’s installed governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said the attack caused an explosion at an ammunition depot, and no damage or casualties were reported. Footage shared by state media showed a thick cloud of brown smoke billowing at the scene.
Aksyonov later said that all rail traffic temporarily suspended in the affected area had returned to normal operations.
Russian news agencies quoted the health ministry as saying that 12 people required medical assistance and four were taken to hospital.
Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, eight years before it launched a full-scale invasion of the country.
About 180 km (110 mi) to the east of the drone incident, traffic on the Crimean Bridge was briefly halted five days after explosions there killed two people and damaged a section of the road – the second major attack on the bridge since the start of the war.
The 19 km (12 mi) road and rail bridge is an important logistics link for Russian forces, and is also heavily used by Russian tourists visiting Crimea in the summer.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that the bridge was a legitimate target because it was a military supply route to Russia.
He said, “This is the route that is used to fill the war with ammunition and it is being done on a daily basis.”
Russia is on high alert for incidents on the bridge and an official Telegram channel tells people not to panic in case of alarm.
In another sign of security concerns in Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to Aksyonov, warned people not to post pictures of critical infrastructure on the Internet.
He urged people who knew the authors of such posts to report them to the Interior Ministry or the FSB security service.
“Remember that video posted on the web of military or other important facilities is a work for the enemy,” he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV Staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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