(Portal) – A fire that broke out at the military training area in the Kirovske district of the Crimean peninsula has forced the evacuation of more than 2,000 people and the closure of the nearby highway, Crimea’s Moscow-backed governor said on Wednesday.
“It is planned to temporarily evacuate the residents of four settlements – that’s more than 2,000 people,” Russia’s installed Governor of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov told news app Telegram.
No reason was given for the fire, which also resulted in the partial closure of the major Tawridy highway.
Russia’s Telegram channels, which are linked to Russian security services and Ukrainian media, reported that an ammunition depot at the base was on fire overnight after a Ukrainian airstrike.
Portal could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odessa military administration in Ukraine, released two videos of a fire in an uninhabited area and said: “Enemy ammunition depot. Staryi Krym.”
Staryi Krym is a small historical town in Kirovske District of Crimea. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Videos and photos on social media showed large blazes and a smoldering fire in an uninhabited area, punctuated by a series of detonations. Some Telegram channels said that as of 07:30 local time (04:30 GMT), the fire had lasted for about three hours and still could not be contained.
The fire came two days after an explosion damaged a bridge connecting Russia and the Crimea peninsula on Monday. Moscow blamed Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin announced retaliation.
Overnight, Russia launched an airstrike on the Ukrainian port of Odessa for the second straight day. The Ukrainian military also said that a drone attack on Kiev was successfully repelled early Wednesday.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)