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Ukraine Crisis: Blasts In Crimea Underscore Russian Forces' Vulnerability

✃ The attacks in Crimea could open a new front that would represent a signi❀ficant escalation in the war and further stretch Russia's resources.

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A spate of explosions and fires has turned Russian-occupied Crimea from a secure rear base into a new battleground in the war, demonstrating both the Russians' vulnerab😼ility and the Ukrainians' capacity to strike deep behind enemy lines.


Nine Russian warplanes were reported destroyed at an air base in Crimea last week, and an ammunition depot on the peninsula blewꦕ up on Tuesday.

Ukrainian authorities have stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility, preferring to keep the world guessing, but President Volodymyr Zelensky alluded to Ukrainian attacks behind enemy lines after the latest blasts, which Russia blamed on “sabotag🦋e".

Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and has u𒊎sed it as a staging ground for attacks on the country in the war that began February 24.

The explosions represent the latest setback for Moscow, which began its invasion with hopes of taking Kyiv in a lightning offensive but s﷽oon became bogged down in the face of fierce resistance.

As the war neaꦆrs the six-month mark, the two sides are engaged in a grinding war oജf attrition, fighting village to village, largely in the country's east.

The attacks in Crimea could open a new front that would re🀅present a sꦦignificant escalation in the war and further stretch Russia's resources.

“Russian c෴ommanders will highly likely be increasingly concerned with the apparent deterioration in security across Crimea, which functions as rear base area for the occupation," ꧙Britain's Defence Ministry wrote on Twitter.

Tuesday's explosions ripped through an ammunition sit♛e near the town of Dzhankoi, forcing the evacuation oꦯf about 3,000 people.

Munitions continued to explode on Wednesday and a✅uthorities fought the fires with a helicopter, said Crimea's regional leader, Sergei Aksyonov. He said a search for the perpetrators was underway.

The Kommersant business paper also reported explosions on Tuesday at a Crimean base in Gvardeyskoye. Tꦍhe🎀re was no confirmation from the Russians.

The British intelligence report said Gvardeyskoye and Dzhankoi are home to two of the most important Russian military 🅷airfields in Crimea.

Just🅰 over a week ago, explosions rocked the Russians' Saki air base on Crimea and destroyed planes on🥃 the ground.

Moscow suggested that the blasts were accidental, caused perhaps by a careless smoker, but Ukrai🍌ꦬnian authorities mocked that explanation and hinted at their involvement.

Last monthꦏ, a small explosive device carried by a makeshift drone blew up in a courtyard at the he𝓀adquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, wounding six people and prompting the cancellation of ceremonies there honouring Russia's navy.

In other developments on Wednesday, two civilians were reported killed and seven wounded by Russian shelling of sev🐻eral towns and villages in the Donetsk region in the east that is the current focus൲ of the Kremlin offensive.

In the south, Russian warplanes fired cruise missi📖les at the Odessa region ove♊rnight, wounding four people, according to regional administration spokesman Oleh Bratchuk.

In Mykolaiv, also in the south, two Russian missiles damaged a universit🌠y building but injured no one.

Russian forces also shelled Kharkiv and the surrounding region in the northeast overnigh꧒t, damaꦡging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure but inflicting no casualties, authorities said. 

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