Recast with Budanov’s comments.
Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a fire that broke out early Wednesday at a Russian military training area in annexed Crimea.
“A successful operation was carried out in occupied Crimea. The enemy hides the extent of the damage done and the number of casualties,” said Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Department.
Budanov added that the fire was the result of the “joint work” between Ukraine’s armed forces and security services.
The large blaze triggered evacuations and cut off traffic along a highway that leads to a key bridge сonnecting the annexed peninsula to mainland Russia, Kremlin-installed authorities said Wednesday morning.
Video posted on social media showed the military range engulfed in flames as explosive projectiles shot into the air.
Crimea’s Russia-backed governor Sergei Aksyonov said the fire occurred in the peninsula’s Kirovsky district, around 100 kilometers from the Crimea bridge that was damaged in a seaborne drone attack Monday.
Aksyonov said more than 2,000 residents in four Crimean settlements near the military training area were being evacuated.
He did not mention whether anyone had been killed or injured in the fire, or what caused the blaze.
Telegram channels believed to have links to Russian security services said the fire erupted at the training site’s missile depot.
The Russian army supplies its forces in southern Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions via the Crimean peninsula.
