Russia conquered and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
A drone strike on an ammunition depot in Crimea prompted authorities to evacuate a 5 km (3 mi) radius and briefly suspend road traffic on the bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia, the region’s Moscow-installed governor said Saturday.
Ukraine said its army destroyed a Russian army oil depot and warehouses in what it called the “temporarily occupied” Oktiabrske district in central Crimea.
The attack caused an ammunition depot to explode, Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said, adding that no damage or casualties were reported. Images shared by state media showed a thick gray cloud of smoke at the site.
Aksyonov later said that all train traffic in the affected area, temporarily disrupted, was back to normal.
Russian news agencies quoted the Health Ministry as saying that 12 people required medical attention and four were taken to hospital.
Russia conquered and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, eight years before the country’s full-scale invasion.
The brief halt to traffic on the Crimean Bridge, about 180 km (110 mi) east of the drone incident, came five days after explosions there killed two people and damaged part of the roadway – the second major attack on the bridge since the start of the war.
A vital logistical link for Russian armed forces, the 19 km (12 mi) road and rail bridge is also widely used by Russian tourists who flock to Crimea in summer.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday that the bridge was a legitimate target because it was a military supply route to Russia.
“This is the route used to feed the war with munitions and this is done on a daily basis,” he said.
Russia is on high alert for incidents at the bridge and an official Telegram channel is telling people not to panic in case of an alarm.
In another sign of security concerns in Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to Aksyonov, warned people not to post images of critical infrastructure on the internet.
He urged people who knew the authors of such messages to report them to the Interior Ministry or FSB security service.
“Remember, a video posted on the web of military or other critical facilities is work for the enemy,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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