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DPAMoscowAn ammunition depot exploded in Crimea on Tuesday morning, triggering an evacuation, according to an official, in further blasts to rock the Russian-occupied peninsula.Videos posted on social media showed a large fire and a cloud of smoke rising from the site of the blast in the northern part of Crimea. Two people in the Dzhankoi area were injured, according to Crimea’s Russia-appointed leader Sergei Aksyonov. “An evacuation is underway, a five-kilometre security zone is being formed for the safety of residents,” Aksyonov said in a video message posted on Telegram.He said forces from the Ministry of Defence, the National Guard and the Civil Defence were being deployed.The explosion occurred in the village of Maiskoye, at a former farm that is now being used by Russian forces as an ammunition depot, according to the authorities. A power supply substation also caught fire, they said. Russian defence ministry officials called the fresh Crimean blast an “act of sabotage,” Interfax news agency reported. By early afternoon, 3,000 people had been evacuated from the area.Repairs are under way and there were no serious injuries, the ministry said. It remain unclear what caused the explosion. The blast has also caused restrictions to rail traffic with trains from Moscow only able to reach Vladyslavivka, an inconvenience for Russians travelling to the popular holiday area during their summer.Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and launched a wider invasion of the country in February. The latest blast comes a week after powerful explosions tore through the Saki military airfield in Crimea, with one person killed and 14 injured. That blast considerably weakened the naval aviation of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, according to a recent assessment by the British Ministry of Defence.Analysts have said that Ukraine struck the base, with several fighter jets destroyed in the blast, although Kiev has not officially confirmed the attack. Moscow however attributed last week’s attack to a fire safety violation. A Ukrainian drone struck the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the port city of Sevastopol, also in Crimea, on July 31, according to the authorities, also causing casualties. As the war continues, Ukrainian fighters are seeking to prevent Russia from seizing the eastern Donbass region, and also parts of the south of the country that have come under heavy attack. Kiev is also trying to regain control of Crimea.Russia accused the West of being deeply involved in Ukrainian counter-offensives. “Not only are the coordinates of attack targets provided by Western intelligence services, but the input of this data into weapons systems is done under the full control of Western specialists,” Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said
