The Ukrainian Armed Forces have officially confirmed the successful destruction of an oil depot and warehouses belonging to the Russian military in the occupied village of Oktiabrske, Krasnohvardiiske District, in Russia-occupied Crimea, the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram.
It also shared a video showcasing the destruction of the warehouses and the oil depot to provide evidence of the operation. News site News of Donbas suggested that one of the Armed Forces’ targets was a disused airfield near Oktiabrske, where the Russian occupation forces had likely established a warehouse for equipment and ammunition. The other target appears to have been the nearby oil depot, situated alongside the railway tracks.
On Saturday, a series of explosions were heard in Crimea, leading to a fire near the village of Oktiabrske, situated approximately 43 km from Simferopol. Crimea’s occupation authorities attributed this incident to a drone attack.
Crimean puppet head Sergey Aksyonov confirmed reports of an ammunition depot being hit by a drone attack.
The detonation was so powerful that the Russian occupying forces had to evacuate residents from nearby settlements and halt railway traffic.
A Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea Saturday blew up an ammunition depot, sparking evacuations on the Moscow-annexed peninsula and halting rail traffic, just five days after drones damaged Russia’s symbolic bridge across the Kerch Strait.
Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, has been targeted by Kyiv throughout Moscow’s 17-month long Ukraine offensive but has come under more intense, increased attacks in recent weeks.
In a counteroffensive launched to retake lands lost to Moscow, Kyiv has increasingly made clear — despite some Western unease — that it aims to also take back the Black Sea peninsula.
“The goal is to return Crimea,” Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said, according to a transcript published by his office Saturday of a speech addressing the Aspen Security Forum Friday.
He said Kyiv considers the Crimea bridge — opened by Russian leader Vladimir Putin in 2018 — as an “enemy object” and wants it to be “neutralized.”
