The leader of the Crimean Tatars' self-governing body says major explosions at a Russian airfield in Crimea are the first clear signal that the Russian-occupied peninsula will be returned to Ukraine.
Mejlis head Refat Chubarov said Russian aggression began there and "must end with the liberation of Crimea, with the restoration of the state sovereignty of Ukraine over the Ukrainian peninsula."
Chubarov made the comments on August 10 on the Svoboda Live program of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
He also said people who arrived in Crimea after Moscow's 2014 annexation and people who are currently on vacation there because sanctions prohibit them from going to other countries "are in a panic" and are preparing to leave.
The explosions were "an appropriate signal that sooner or later those who have the right to be there will return to Crimea, and not those who captured Crimea," he said.
Ukrainian officials have stopped short of publicly claiming responsibility for the explosions in Crimea, but the air force said on August 10 that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed. Russia denied any aircraft were damaged in the blasts.
If Ukrainian forces were responsible for the blasts, it would be the first known major attack on a Russian military site on the Crimean Peninsula.
Chubarov's comments echoed those of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who in his nightly video address on August 9 vowed to reverse Moscow's annexation of Crimea and retake the peninsula by the end of the war.
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"This Russian war against Ukraine and against all of free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea — its liberation," Zelenskiy said. "Today it is impossible to say when this will happen. But we are constantly adding the necessary components to the formula for the liberation of Crimea."
Crimea has so far escaped heavy fighting, and officials in Moscow have warned Ukraine that any attack there would trigger massive retaliation, including strikes on "decision-making centers" in Kyiv.
The Russian Defense Ministry indicated in a statement that the Saky airfield was not targeted in an attack and that the detonation of aviation ammunition caused the explosions, which reportedly killed one person, without clarifying who or what triggered the blasts.
The New York Times quoted an unnamed "senior Ukrainian military official with knowledge of the situation" as saying that Ukrainian forces were behind the Crimea explosions.
It said the official declined to specify what type of weapon caused them but said "a device exclusively of Ukrainian manufacture was used."
The source also suggested that the Saky air base, on Crimea's western coast, was routinely used to launch air attacks on Ukrainian forces.
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Speculation Swirls Around Explosions At Russian Military Base In Occupied Crimea
RFE/RL could not independently confirm the Times' reporting.
A Ukrainian military expert told Current Time that Kyiv "theoretically" had weapons that could have reached Saky.
Amid speculation about the explosions, reports overnight on August 9-10 suggested Russian troops were concentrating on a southern region and Ukrainians reported minor successes around Kharkiv.
Assessments of the fighting from Ukrainian and Western military sources indicate that battle lines have become increasingly entrenched as the conflict grinds on, with advances mostly limited on either side.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian military on August 10 said the operational situation in the north did not change during the day.
But it said military exercises began in Belarus, and a threat remains of missile and air strikes from the country bordering Ukraine to the north.
The General Staff also said Russian troops tried to conduct assault operations near settlements in the Kharkiv region but had to retreat due to the resistance of Ukrainian units.
The report also said Russian forces withdrew after attempting to advance in the Kramatorsk direction and Bakhmut and other settlements in the Donetsk region.