Thousands of people evacuated due to fire at an ammunition depot in Crimea

On Wednesday morning, a fire broke out at the military base in Kirovsky. Photo: STRINGER/REUTERS

Thousands of civilians were evacuated after an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea caught fire, triggering a series of explosions.

Explosions were still heard hours after the fire was reported at the Kirov military base on Wednesday morning, according to Russian media.< /p>

Authorities did not specify the cause of the fire, but the footage shows columns of black smoke rising into the sky.

The incident occurred just a few days after the explosion on Kerch Bridge, which connects the Black Sea Peninsula with the Russian mainland, for which the Kremlin blamed Ukraine.

Local authorities said more than 2,000 people had been evacuated from the villages surrounding the depot. It is reported that they were granted temporary shelter.

Sections of the Taurida highway connecting Sevastopol with the Crimean port of Kerch were blocked, and cars are redirected to regional roads.

The pro-Russian head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said: “It is planned to temporarily evacuate the inhabitants of four settlements in the Kirovsky district — this is more than two thousand people.

“An operational headquarters has been deployed, all special services are working on the spot.”

Head of the Crimean State Council Vladimir Konstantinov suggested that Ukraine was behind the attacks.

“The situation is dynamic. Everything is under control at the moment,” Konstantinov said in a message on the messaging app Telegram.

“Kyiv is doing everything to shake up the situation inside Crimea. But they cannot understand that it all works in the opposite direction. Since 2014, we have been holding back their provocations,” he added.

“Explosions are still heard at the test site [at 12:45 local time]… Crimea has experience in dealing with such situations.”

Explosions were still heard at the test site hours after the fire was reported. Photo: STRINGER/REUTERSEarly reports suggested that Kililo Budanov, Ukraine's head of military intelligence, claimed responsibility for the fire and hailed a «successful operation.»

However, the Defense Ministry later denied this and attributed the post to a fake. on Telegram.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, which was not recognized by the international community.

Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to retake the peninsula as part of its campaign to expel Russian troops from its territory.

Separately on Wednesday, Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately targeting grain terminals and infrastructure in the Black Sea port of Odessa for the second straight night after Moscow withdrew from a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to be safely exported to world markets.

“Russian terrorists have deliberately attacked the infrastructure of the grain deal,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after the night attacks on Tuesday.

“Every Russian missile is a blow not only to Ukraine, but to everyone in the world who wants a normal and secure life.”

The Black Sea grain deal, struck last July, was meant to combat a global food crisis exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the blockade of Ukrainian ports.

< p>Mr Zelenskiy said the agreement could continue without Russian involvement and that Ukraine was working on options to meet its food supply obligations.

Russia announced on Monday that it would pull out of the deal, complaining that promises to release their own supplies of food and fertilizer have not been kept.