On the afternoon of 9 August, explosions shook a russian-occupied military airbase in Novofedorivka, in the Saky district of russian-occupied Crimea. Planes used to attack the south of Ukraine usually take off from this airbase.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense distanced itself from explosions at a Crimea airfield. The russian defense ministry claimed that no-one fired on the airfield, but that an ammo detonation caused the explosions. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said sarcastically on Facebook, “The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine cannot establish the cause of the fire, but once again recalls the rules of fire safety and the prohibition of smoking in undesignated places.”
The media were abuzz with speculation that it was hit by long-range missiles, while Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the President of Ukraine, said that the explosions could have been the result of partisan work.
russia already has reported numerous explosions at its munitions storage sites near the Ukrainian border, blaming some of them on Ukrainian strikes. Ukrainian authorities mostly haven’t commented on the incidents.
If Ukrainian forces were, in fact, responsible for the blasts at the air base, it would mark the first known major attack on a Russian military site on the Crimean Peninsula.
