At least four explosions were reported in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea overnight near the Belbek military airport outside the port city of Sevastopol, according to local sources.
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The Russian-imposed administrator of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, wrote on Telegram late on August 18 that anti-aircraft defenses had shot down a Ukrainian drone. He added that the explosions had not caused any damage.
The same day, a Russian official in the Crimean city of Kerch said that air defenses had been activated there. Kerch is located on the far eastern tip of Crimea and is the terminus of the Crimean Bridge (also called the Kerch Strait Bridge), a high-profile Russian-built road and rail link between the occupied Ukrainian region and the Russian mainland.
The official said: “There is no danger to the city or the bridge.”
Video clips apparently showing the anti-aircraft fire in Kerch appeared on social media.
The Crimean Bridge was completed in May 2018 and built at a cost of some $4 billion. It was a significant prestige project intended to bolster Moscow’s claims on Crimea and was inaugurated by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian military targets in Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, have been rocked by blasts in recent days. A Russian ammunition depot in northern Crimea exploded on August 16, in an incident Russian authorities have attributed to “sabotage.”
The same day, an electrical substation in the Dzhankoy district of the Black Sea peninsula exploded, although the cause of that blast remains unknown.
On August 9, the Saky Air Base was struck by explosions that destroyed at least nine military aircraft, including Su-30SM fighters and Su-24M bombers.
Ukrainian officials have avoided publicly claiming responsibility for the explosions, but an unnamed senior Ukrainian official was quoted in The New York Times as saying an elite Ukrainian military unit operating behind enemy lines was carrying out at least some of the attacks.
On July 31, the Russian Navy Day celebrations in Sevastopol were canceled after a drone strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet injured six people.