A local state of emergency has been declared in the town of Dzhankoi in the north of Russian-annexed Crimea following a drone attack late Monday, Interfax quoted the head of the city administration Igor Ivin as saying on Tuesday.
Ukraine said the attack had destroyed Russian cruise missiles, though it denied responsibility for the “mysterious” incident.
“An explosion in the town of Dzhankoi in the north of temporarily occupied Crimea destroyed Russian Kalibr-NK cruise missiles as they were being transported by rail,” Ukrainian military intelligence said in a statement on social media.
Russian investigators had earlier said that air defense systems repelled a drone attack at Dzhankoi and that debris from the incident damaged a shop and home and left one person injured.
“The targets of all downed drones were civilian objects,” the Investigative Committee added in its statement.
Crimea’s Kremlin-installed leader Sergei Aksyonov said the debris from activated air defense systems had damaged a household and a store near Dzhankoi.
Aksyonov’s adviser Oleg Kryuchkov denied that railway infrastructure was damaged in the attack, but did say the attack was “revenge” for the annexation, days after Moscow celebrated the ninth anniversary of the region’s takeover.
Dzhankoi is a logistics hub on the border between Russian-controlled Crimea and southern Ukraine, which has been controlled by Russian forces since they invaded Ukraine in February last year.
Igor Ivin, Dzhankoi’s Russian-installed mayor, told state television that power lines had also been damaged.
Igor Mikhailichenko, the deputy head of Crimea’s administration, told the state-run TV channel Krym-24 that all the shrapnel-laced drones had been downed over civilian objects.
Eyewitness footage showed a series of loud explosions and debris from what appeared to be a drone.
Baza, a Telegram news channel with purported links with Russia’s security services, said Tuesday a 33-year-old bystander was hospitalized after suffering a shrapnel wound in the chest.
The attack took place two days after Russia marked the ninth anniversary of the 2014 annexation of Crimea with low-key festivities as Russian troops enter the second year of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Crimea over the weekend, his first to the peninsula since he sent troops to Ukraine on February 24 last year.
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