At the identical time, Russian forces have been increase their defensive positions throughout the already closely militarized peninsula. Satellite photographs revealed by personal companies in current weeks reveal a rising community of trenches and different fortifications.
On Saturday, a spokesman for Ukraine’s navy intelligence service mentioned the hearth at the gas depot in Sevastopol was “God’s punishment” for Uman, the town the place a Russian missile strike a day earlier killed 23 folks, together with six youngsters. Two ladies stay lacking, in accordance with the Ukrainian inside minister, Ihor Klymenko.
“This punishment will be long-lasting,” the spokesman, Andriy Yusov, mentioned. “All residents of the temporarily occupied Crimea should not be near military facilities and facilities that supply the aggressor’s army in the near future.”
He claimed that greater than 10 tanks with oil merchandise with a complete capability of 40,000 tons had been destroyed in Saturday’s blaze. However, the native Russian authorities mentioned that the harm was much less intensive and that the hearth had been extinguished as of the afternoon. While Mr. Razvozhaev initially mentioned that two drones had hit the gas depot, he later clarified to say {that a} second drone had been shot down earlier than it reached the goal.
While Ukrainian officers cheer the assaults on Crimea, the navy sometimes doesn’t take credit score to be able to preserve operational secrecy. Kyiv doesn’t need Moscow to know what long-range weapons it has at its disposal, even because it engages in bold fund-raising campaigns to broaden its fleet of long-range aerial and maritime drones, officers say.
On Saturday morning, the billowing smoke from the hearth at the oil depot on Kazachya Bay could possibly be seen for miles. It was burning an space of about 10,000 sq. ft, Mr. Razvozhaev mentioned, including that there can be no evacuation of the native space and gas provides for drivers wouldn’t be affected.
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Russian shelling: A 63-year-old man was killed in his mattress and a 14-year-old boy was injured early Saturday morning after shelling hit residential communities alongside the border of Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv area, the nation’s northern navy command mentioned.
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Further casualties: In Ukraine’s southern Kherson area, shelling within the city of Bilozerka hit a hospital and a number of other personal properties, killing a 57-year-old lady in her own residence and injuring three extra folks, the regional navy administration mentioned on Friday night.
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Pope in Hungary: Pope Francis visited Ukrainian refugees in Budapest on Saturday, saying he was moved by their dedication to discovering “a different future, far from the horrors of war.” He then had what the Vatican’s official outlet known as a “cordial” assembly with a consultant of the Russian Orthodox Church — a diplomatically delicate assembly given the church’s shut ties to the Kremlin.
Marc Santora reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Victoria Kim from Seoul. Anatoly Kurmanaev contributed reporting from Berlin, and Anushka Patil from New York.
