The Ukrainian presidential representative for Crimea, Tamila Tasheva, has reached out to residents of the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula following the explosions in Dzhankoy District.
"Over almost six months of the great war, the occupiers have been calling the war a special operation. People were fined, imprisoned, kidnapped and tortured for using the word war, for protesting against this war. Crimean women wrote to Crimean military commissars, demanding that their children not be sent to war. Crimea has long been more than just a rear and a base for the Russian Federation. The war came 'unexpectedly' to Crimea. The occupiers and colonizers are already fleeing Crimea. Today, after another careless handling of ammunition by the occupiers, there was a detonation in Dzhankoy District. People are hiding in basements. There are huge queues to get out of Crimea," she wrote on Facebook.
Tasheva said that over the six months of the great war and last week, the occupying administration has been claiming that Crimea and the people were not threatened by anything.
"The Russian Defence Ministry again speaks about 'a fire in an ammunition depot'... People think otherwise," she noted.
"Dear citizens of Ukraine who live in Crimea and especially those who have been resisting the occupiers the entire eight years of war. We will definitely liberate Crimea, applying all possible and not forbidden mechanisms to fight not only for the territory, but also for you. I am sure you have been waiting for this all these years of occupation. In the meantime, be careful, hide in equipped places or your basements. Prepare the right means. Next year in Bakhchysaray," the presidential representative added.
On 9 August, explosions were registered at the Novofedorivka military airfield near the town of Saky in occupied Crimea. The Russian Defence Ministry said that the explosions were caused by "the detonation of several aircraft munitions". The occupiers later reported one dead and five wounded.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said that it was "unable to establish the cause of the fire".
Smoke could be seen over the military airbase in the Crimean village of Hvardiyske (Simferopol District) this morning. According to local residents, several explosions were heard there. Other explosions were also heard around the same time near the Crimean village of Mayske. according to the occupiers, there was an "ammunition detonation" as a result of a "sabotage" at a military base. There was also an explosion at a railway transformer station.
The front line in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions is about 200 km away from Novofedorivka in Crimea.