A Russia-installed official in the peninsula,which was annexed by Moscow in 2014,said the blast was caused by drones laced with shrapnel and explosives and targeted civilian sites. One person was injured.
US military drone forced down by Russian warplane over Black Sea.
A statement by the intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said:“An explosion in Dzhankoi city in the north of temporarily occupied Crimea destroyed Russian Kalibr-KN cruise missiles as they were being transported by rail”.
The statement on social media said the missiles,designed to be launched from surface ships in Russia’s Black Sea fleet,had an operational range of more than 2500 kilometres on land and 375kms at sea.
Ihor Ivin,the Russian-installed head of the Dzhankoi administration,was quoted as saying the city had come under attack from drones and a 33-year-old man suffered a shrapnel injury from a downed drone. He was taken to hospital and expected to survive.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the Ukrainian and Russian reports.
Destroyed Russian aircraft and other damage at Saky Air Base in Crimea after Ukraine strikes in August.Planet Labs/AP
TASS quoted Ivin as saying on Krym-24 TV that a house,school and grocery store caught fire,and the power grid sustained damage.
Oleg Kryuchkov,an adviser to the Russia-installed head of Crimea,said the drone attack was aimed at civilian targets.
“All the drones targeted civilian sites. One was hit over the Dzhankoi technical school and came down between the instruction area and a student residence,” he said on his Telegram channel.
“There are no military sites nearby. The others were downed in residential areas. In addition to explosives,each one carried shrapnel.”
A Russian military air base is located near Dzhankoi,with Ukrainian officials long saying that the city and the surrounding areas have been turned into the largest Moscow military base in Crimea.
Ukraine has staged a number of daring attacks on targets in Crimea. Last August,missiles destroyed several planes at an air base on the peninsula’s south-west coast and Ukrainian authorities later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Earlier,the Russian Defence Ministry said a Russian Su-35 fighter jet was scrambled over the Baltic Sea after two US strategic bombers flew in the direction of the Russian border,but that it returned to base after they moved away.
A B-52 and a Russian Su27 fighter over the Baltic Sea in 2017.Twitter/@carlbildt
The development followed the March 14 crash of a after it was intercepted by Russian jets in what was the first known direct military encounter between Russia and the United States since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
“On March 20,radar facilities of the air defence forces of the Western military district on duty over the Baltic Sea detected two air targets flying in the direction of the Russian Federation’s state border,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday (AEDT).
It said the targets were US Air Force B52H strategic bombers.
It said a Su-35 fighter jet had taken to the air to prevent a border violation,and added,“after the foreign military aircraft moved away from the Russian Federation state border,the Russian fighter returned to its base airfield”.
The ministry said the Su-35’s flight was strictly in line with international rules of the use of airspace. “No violation of the state border of the Russian Federation was permitted,” it said.
Reuters
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