Huge fireball explosion erupts at ammunition depot in Crimea

A Russian ammunition depot in Crimea has burst into flames after it was rocked by a series of explosions, leaving two people injured and prompting evacuations.

The enormous blaze broke out on Tuesday morning in Mayskoye, a village in the north of the peninsula Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. No “serious” casualties have been reported so far, according to the Russian state news agency RIA.

The Russian defence ministry confirmed that the affected site had been used “for temporary storage of ammunition of one of the military units”.

“As a result of the fire, the stored ammunition detonated,” it said, without specifying what caused the blaze.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, said 2,000 local residents had been evacuated. Ammunition continues to detonate at the site, he added.

Moscow also said another fire had started at a transformer substation near the town of Dzhankoi, 14 miles from Mayskoye. The Kremlin has not commented on the cause of either blaze, with Ukraine yet to officially confirm or deny responsibility.

After Tuesday’s explosions, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted that Crimea under Ukrainian control used to be a country of “the Black Sea, mountains, recreation and tourism”, but that under Russian occupation it was one of “warehouses explosions and high risk of death for invaders and thieves”.

His comments came a week after large explosions occurred at a Russian military base in the Crimean city of Novofedorivka, far from the frontline of the war. Some of the Kremlin’s jets appeared to be destroyed by the blasts, which Moscow blamed on the accidental explosion of munition.

Analysts have called this narrative into question, instead suggesting that the damage was caused by anti-ship missiles fired by Ukraine.

Ukraine hopes to take back control of Crimea soon, with Mr Zelensky saying earlier this month that the entire Black Sea region would not be safe until the peninsula was recaptured.

“This Russian war against Ukraine and against the entire free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – with its liberation,” he said.

Additional reporting by AP