KIEV, Ukraine — Blasts hit Russian targets in and near occupied Crimea overnight through Wednesday, when Ukraine appeared to intensify attacks on Russian military strongholds ahead of an expected counteroffensive.
In Crimea, drones attacked a border post in Simferopol on Tuesday night, according to photos and videos shared on social media and geolocated by Radio Liberty, a US government-funded broadcaster. Ukraine did not claim direct responsibility for the incident, but Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Chernyak said in a statement Wednesday morning: “Of course the enemy must be cut off from Crimea.”
Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014, served as a key base for Moscow’s all-out invasion and a hub for supplying troops and arms to its occupying power in southern Ukraine.
Just east of Crimea, inside Russian territory in the village of Volna, Russian authorities reported an explosion at a fuel depot after a drone strike on Wednesday before dawn. Videos showed dark smoke rising from a fire seen on the nearby bridge connecting Crimea to Russia.
Russian state media reported that the fire was caused by a drone falling on the oil facility in Russia’s Krasnodar Territory.
Ukrainian forces have been attacking in Crimea for months, but attacks have escalated in recent days as Kiev conducts what its officials describe as the final stages of planning a counteroffensive to retake confiscated territories.
US officials say Ukraine’s military has been bolstered with training and equipment from Western allies. Gen. Mark Milley, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States and NATO allies helped train and supply about nine Ukrainian brigades, including some light infantry units, used for both offensive and defensive operations to be ready.
“The Ukrainians now have the ability to attack, they can conduct offensive operations, and they also have the capability to defend, which has been greatly improved compared to conventional operations just a year ago,” General Milley said in the published comments of Foreign Affairs magazine on Tuesday.
While Ukraine has not disclosed detailed plans for a counteroffensive, military officials have described the recent blasts in Crimea and other Russian-held territories as part of an effort to disrupt Russia’s logistical capabilities. Over the weekend, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Military Command Natalia Humeniuk said an attack on an oil depot in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, was part of preparations for “the broad, full-scale offensive that everyone is expecting.” .”
Separately, Russia’s top security agency announced on Wednesday that it had arrested seven people who had planned to carry out “high-profile acts of sabotage and terror” in Crimea in cooperation with Ukraine’s military intelligence service. Among the targets were several officials deployed by the Kremlin, including Crimea’s governor Sergei Aksyonov, according to the agency, the Federal Security Service or the FSB, the successor to the KGB. He did not publicly release detailed evidence to support his claims.
In the occupied territories, the Ukrainian military appears to be stepping up its attacks. Ukraine’s Air Force said Wednesday morning that it had launched attacks on concentrations of Russian troops, ammunition depots, a Russian command post and other targets over the past 24 hours. The claims could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials reported attacks by Russian planes, drones or artillery on cities and towns across the country.
Explosions echoed again overnight in Kiev, the capital, as air defense systems attacked Russian attack drones, with regional officials saying all were shot down. According to Ukrainian officials, a Russian plane launched attacks on a village in northeastern Sumy region, and drones targeted central Ukraine’s Dnipro region and Mykolaiv region in the south. There were no immediate reports of casualties in these incidents.
Ivan Nechepurenko contributed to the coverage.