A railway in annexed Crimea has been damaged, the fourth such incident on the peninsula’s rail system over the past month and a half, the region’s Russian-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov said Tuesday.
Aksyonov did not identify the cause or nature of the damage, noting only that there were no casualties and that repair works were expected to take several hours.
The incident took place in the Kirovsky district of eastern Crimea, where a railway connects sections leading to mainland Ukraine in the north and mainland Russia in the east.
According to the Baza Telegram channel, which is believed to have links to Russia’s law enforcement agencies, a “detonation” caused the damage and derailed a freight train.
Russia-backed officials in occupied eastern Ukraine described the incident as “sabotage.”
Several acts of sabotage have been reported on Russian railways since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine 16 months ago.
The latest include two separate detonations near the southeastern port city of Feodosia earlier this month. In May, Crimean officials confirmed the derailment of several train cars carrying grain.
