New Delhi: A Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow-annexed Crimea led to the “detonation” of an ammunition depot on Saturday, the Moscow-installed leader of the peninsula said, as reported by news agency AFP.
In the wake of the incident, the authorities ordered the evacuation of people living within five kilometres of the attack and briefly halted road traffic on the bridge linking the peninsula to Russia.
“As a result of an enemy drone on the Krasnogvardeisky district, there was a detonation at an ammunition depot,” official Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram, as reported by AFP. “A decision was taken to evacuate people (living) within five kilometres” of the zone, he added. Aksyonov also informed that train traffic will be stopped on the peninsula. “To minimise risks, it was also decided to halt rail traffic on Crimean railways,” he said.
Aksyonov did not specify the location that was hit and said that it was in the Krasnogvardeisky district, which lies inland at the centre of the Black Sea peninsula.
It is to be noted that the aerial attack came just five days after the only bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia was hit, killing two people. Crimea, that was annexed by Moscow in 2014, has been targeted throughout the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. However, the attacks have increased in recent weeks, after Kyiv launched a counteroffensive to retake land lost to Moscow, and stated that it also aims to reclaim Crimea.
Speaking remotely to the Aspen Security Forum earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s Crimea bridge must be “neutralised”, reported AFP.
Asked if Kyiv aims to return Crimea in its counteroffensive, Zelensky said, “The goal is to return all of Crimea, because it is our sovereign state, and our sovereign territory is an integral part of our state.”
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