That’s according to the Crimean Wind Telegram channel, Ukrinform reports. “Last night, UAVs targeted Russian airfields in Novofedorivka and Kacha, as reported by our subscribers,” the post reads. The attack lasted approximately five hours. Explosions were also reported in Armiansk and Krasnoperekopsk, though the consequences of the strikes remain unclear. As reported by Ukrinform, on the evening of April 23, explosions were heard in Crimea, with reports suggesting that an airfield may have been targeted. Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421. © 2015-2025 Ukrinform. All rights reserved. Kyiv has denied responsibility for the incident The blasts took place in the town of Novofedorivka which is also a popular tourist destination Images and video shared on social media show plumes of black smoke rising from the site. Emergency crews rushed to the scene.  according to the regional leader of Crimea while the region's top health official said five people Russsia's defense ministry denied reports that there had been an attack saying the blasts were caused by the detonation of aviation ammunition said in a post on Telegram that he was traveling to the area and that the "circumstances are being clarified." A close aide to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy denied responsibility for the explosion, telling TV Rain: "What would we have to do with this?" Russian troops annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move not recognized by most other countries. The peninsula, however, has been largely spared from the intense shelling seen in other areas of eastern and southern Ukraine since Russia invaded the country at the end of February. In his Tuesday night address after the explosions Zelenskyy the Black Sea "cannot be safe as long as Crimea is occupied." "This Russian war against Ukraine and against the entire free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea — with its liberation," he added Ukrainian war-damaged school aims to reopenTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Here are the other main headlines from the war in Ukraine on August 9 The Latvian government has formally requested to be granted third-party status in Ukraine's case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).  In June, the Strasbourg-based court said it had registered Kyiv's request to establish a case against alleged human rights violations committed by Russia in Ukraine.  Latvia's Foreign Ministry said it was the first time that Riga requested to intervene as a third party in an ongoing international judicial case noting that the measure was only used "in very rare circumstances." Riga has already opened a criminal probe into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine citing Latvian crimes against laws that have no territorial limitations.  Ukrainian refugees are told when arriving in Latvia about their right to testify about what they witnessed during the war Dozens of refugees have exercised this right and Riga recognized two Ukrainian citizens as victims.  The US State Department announced that Washington would provide Ukraine with $89 million (€87.1 million) to support 100 demining teams.  The money would also go toward training and equipping Ukrainian forces to undertake the dangerous job of defusing mines across some 16 million hectares of land that Ukraine's government said were mined by Russia.  "Russia's unlawful and unprovoked further invasion of Ukraine has littered massive swaths of the country with landmines and improvised explosive devices," the State Department said in a statement "These explosive hazards block access to fertile farmland prevent displaced communities from returning to their homes and continue to kill and maim innocent Ukrainian civilians," it added Kyiv has already defused around 160,000 mines but nearly 5 million Ukrainians still inhabit areas thought to be mined by the Russians.  The supply of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline through Ukraine was halted Russia's Transneft pipeline company said on Tuesday The move impacts supplies going to three European countries — Hungary said the Ukrainian side halted the oil transport due to payment problems Ukrainian authorities required Russia to prepay for pumping oil across Ukrainian territory via the pipeline Payments from Transneft, however, have been rejected as a result of EU sanctions on Moscow over the invasion. Poland and Belarus were continuing "as usual," the company said Ukrainian officials did not immediately confirm the oil supply shutdown The Kremlin sharply criticized an appeal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for an international travel ban on all Russian nationals. Zelenskyy's suggestion was received "extremely negatively" in Moscow Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday "The irrationality of the thought process exceeds every measure," he added according to Russia's Interfax news agency In an interview with the Washington Post, Zelenskyy argued that tougher measures by Western countries are needed to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war He told the paper "the most important sanctions are to close the borders — because the Russians are taking away someone else's land." More ships carrying grain have left Ukrainian ports, as slow progress continues on easing shipments of vital food supplies that had been blocked due to the war. "Two ships left the port of Chornomorsk carrying a total of 70,000 tons of agricultural products," Ukraine's Infrastructure Ministry said in a statement on social media With Tuesday's latest shipments, 12 vessels carrying grain have now set sail from southern Ukrainian ports after the UN and Turkey helped broker a deal. Ukraine is one of the world's biggest grain producers but exports had been halted due to a Russian naval blockade and extensive mining by Ukrainian forces The official website of the Finnish Parliament has been left inaccessible through a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack The attack was started around 2:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) on Tuesday Finnish public broadcaster Yle reported that a Russian hacker syndicate claimed responsibility for the attack through a post on their Telegram channel the group has also been behind cyberattacks on state institutions on Poland "We decided to make a 'friendly' visit to neighboring Finland whose authorities are so eager to join NATO," Yle cited the group as saying Finland's Parliament tweeted that it was working alongside service providers and the National Cyber Security Center in order to restore the website Russia's Foreign Ministry has suggested it could support a visit by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitors to the nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine we are ready to provide the maximum possible assistance to resolve organizational issues," the ministry said Russia also accused the UN of having canceled an inspection trip that was already planned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier demanded that international investigators be given access to the site and the IAEA said that safety measures had been "violated" by occupying Russian forces Ukraine said it has evacuated at least 3,000 people from the eastern region of Donetsk over the last six days more than 3,000 citizens were evacuated including almost 600 children and 1,400 women Obligatory evacuations continue," said Kyrylo Tymoshenko deputy head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office The Ukrainian government said it had launched compulsory evacuations because it does not expect to be able to provide it with heat during winter Tymoshenko said that since February around 1.3 million people have been evacuated from the Donetsk region "Now on the territory of the region there is a population of 350,000 Ukraine's president urged residents to comply with the obligatory evacuations late last month Since Russian forces occupied a Ukraine nuclear power plant in March, the situation has deteriorated and the site has reportedly been shelled, raising concerns of a catastrophe. Experts say that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — Europe's biggest — is "extremely vulnerable" to meltdown. The outbreak of the war in Ukraine was met with an outpouring of humanitarian support from volunteers across Germany. But how strong is the solidarity with the refugees after almost six months of war? The Ukrainian military hit strategic bridges on the Dnieper River and Russian bases in Russian-held Kherson delivering a blow to key infrastructure in the region and forcing Moscow to rethink its supply lines Ukraine: Hospitals under attackTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker after ‘aviation munitions detonated’ in storage area A Russian airbase deep behind the frontline in Crimea has been damaged by several large explosions although it was not immediately clear whether it had been targeted by a long-range Ukrainian missile strike Multiple social media videos showed explosions and clouds emerging from the Saky military base in Novofedorivka on the western coast of Crimea on Tuesday afternoon prompting questions about how a location more than 100 miles (160km) from the frontline could have been attacked Later a senior Ukrainian official appeared to claim responsibility Russia’s defence ministry told the RIA Novosti news agency that the explosions took place at about 3.20pm local time and that “several aviation munitions detonated” in a storage area It said it was trying to discern the cause of the incident Russian tourists holidaying on beaches nearby could be seen leaving in fear It is one of few occasions that the peninsula has been directly affected by the latest fighting Local people told one Russian news site that explosions went on for an hour Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed head of occupied Crimea, said one person had died. Earlier, he had filmed a video statement near the site saying that ambulance crews and medics were on the scene In his nightly address, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, did not discuss who was behind the attacks but vowed to “liberate” Crimea , saying “This Russian war against Ukraine and against the entire free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea - with its liberation “Russia has turned our peninsula, which has always been and will be one of the best places in Europe into one of the most dangerous places in Europe But we will return to the Ukrainian Crimea from Berdyansk to Novofedorivka – these are all parts of our country said Ukraine was not taking responsibility for the explosions suggesting partisans might have been involved Asked by the Dozhd online television channel whether Kyiv was taking responsibility he appeared to suggest the strike could herald a new phase of the conflict Podolyak said that Kyiv’s long-term goal was “demilitarisation of the Russian Federation”. He added: “The future of the Crimea is to be a pearl of the Black Sea a national park with unique nature and a world resort Ukraine’s defence ministry said it could not determine the cause of the explosions but added that people should have regard for the rules of fire safety and “the prohibition of smoking in unspecified places” The airbase, where Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill landed en route to the Yalta conference in February 1945 is too far – about 110 miles – from the frontline to be struck by conventional land-based Ukrainian rockets In the previous 24 hours there had been growing speculation about Ukraine’s missile capability after the US confirmed that it had supplied Kyiv with long-range anti-radiation missiles A Pentagon spokesperson said on Monday that the US had previously supplied a number of the weapons to Ukraine, but declined to say how many or of what type. The weapons are widely believed to be the AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation (Harm) missile, a tail fin of which was being circulated by Russian bloggers on Sunday They are typically launched from a plane and have a maximum range of about 90 miles Ukraine has shown it is able to strike deeper and deeper into Russian-held territory using the Himars rocket artillery there were other suggestions that the Saky base was hit by a guerrilla operation the editor-in-chief of the state-owned Russia Today outlet appeared to suggest in a tweet that the explosions were caused by sabotage – although she later said the explosion was caused by “several munitions” detonating in storage Simonyan said there had been no missile strikes and added that claims Kyiv’s forces could strike 300km (186 miles) were “Ukropropaganda” She advised people to “exhale and go to the beach” showed traffic jams forming as people sought to flee Crimea The Saky airbase is about 165 miles from the Ukrainian city of Odesa prompting speculation it could have been targeted by Neptune missiles previously used to knock out the Russian Moskva warship The anti-ship missiles have a range of about 190 miles and can be used to hit ground targets told the New York Times that “a device exclusively of Ukrainian manufacture was used” in the attack a cruise missile developed by Ukraine and which first became operationally available in the early phases of the war officials said at least three Ukrainian civilians were killed and 23 were wounded by Russian shelling in 24 hours including in an attack not far from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant said that Russian forces firing more than 120 rockets at the town of Nikopol damaged several apartment buildings and industrial sites The prime ministers of Estonia and Finland have called on fellow European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens saying they should not be able to take holidays in Europe while the Russian government carries out a war in Ukraine said on Tuesday that “visiting Europe is a privilege not a human right” and that it was “time to end tourism from Russia now” a day after a similar appeal from her counterpart in Finland Zelenskiy went further in a Washington Post interview on Monday and called for a full travel ban and the expulsion of Russians who had moved to the west said the idea amounted to “irrational thinking” Ukrainian military officials revealed on Wednesday The war in Ukraine is "remote" for many "average Russians" living in Russia and Russian-controlled areas the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; and Lt first deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's National Security and Intelligence Committee; wrote in an op-ed The pair explained that there have been efforts to "physically transfer the zone of hostilities to the temporarily occupied territory" of Crimea most notably through a series of missile strikes "on the enemy's Crimea-based air bases They said that should the war continue into 2023 the aim will be to "make these experiences even sharper and more tangible for the Russians and for other occupied regions despite the massive distance to the targets." Wednesday's op-ed appears to mark the first public acknowledgement of not only Ukraine's involvement in the attack on Saki Air Base but also the first official explanation of how Ukraine executed the attack which the Russians characterized as an accidental ammunition dump explosion Russia's Saki Air Base near Novofedorivka erupted in explosions on August 9 sparking speculation of Ukrainian involvement even as Russia downplayed the incident which was later followed by explosions elsewhere which officials say knocked out 10 Russian Su-24 and Su-30M aircraft Western intelligence said it crippled the combat capability of the naval aviation elements of the Black Sea fleet But a number of unnamed Ukrainian officials hinted at Ukrainian involvement in comments to the media In an address in August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that officials needed to keep any information they had to themselves The attacks brought the war to what Russia considers to be Russian territory making it real for people far from the front lines "The picture of that is the people on the beach in Crimea the large explosion behind them," he told Insider on Wednesday referring to the above image that the Ukrainian military highlighted afterwards Edmonds added that this kind of capability which may still be very limited if it's a new Ukrainian-developed capability will likely impact Russian morale if Ukraine develops an ability to strike areas from which Russia could previously operate with impunity Zaluzhnyi and Zabrodskyi called particular attention to the "impunity that the lack of physical proximity ensures," arguing "this is the true Center of Gravity for the enemy" and that Ukraine has "no right to leave it without proper attention." The Ukrainian officials stressed the need to focus on and target Russia's "source of confidence the need for the Russian leadership and society to support the war on Ukraine." That's according to the Telegram channel Crimean Wind [...] The Saky military airfield is located in Novofedorivka which is the core of the aviation group that supports Russian troops in southern Ukraine It is armed with Su-24 bombers and Su-30 fighters," the post said While citing and using any materials on the Internet links to the website ukrinform.net not lower than the first paragraph are mandatory citing the translated materials of foreign media outlets is possible only if there is a link to the website ukrinform.net and the website of a foreign media outlet Materials marked as "Advertisement" or with a disclaimer reading "The material has been posted in accordance with Part 3 of Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine "On Advertising" No 1996 and the Law of Ukraine "On the Media" No 2023 and on the basis of an agreement/invoice Online media entity; Media identifier - R40-01421 Donate Saky is used as a training and patrol base for Russian navy pilots and hosts aircraft including SU-30SM fighter jets SU-24 tactical bombers and Il-76 transports The base was attacked with UAVs or loitering munitions, targeting aircraft and fuel and ammunition stores; the strike damaged the airfield’s infrastructure and sparked wildfires The base was attacked using UAVs and Neptune missiles, with the explosions visible from nearby Novofedorivka Satellite imagery following the first attack revealed at least eight destroyed aircraft, destroyed buildings and cratering. Social media videos showed large smoke plumes from the facility and burned-out vehicles, as well as damaged residential buildings within a 1 km radius Aircraft are composed of metallic materials and plastics and can contain significant volumes of fuel Airfields are often associated with pollution from toxic and environmentally persistent per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) which are used in fire-fighting foams and in military and aerospace applications The blasts and fires will have helped disperse pollutants that are present into the local environment stored munitions and fuels affected by the attacks will also have been released These are likely to have included energetic compounds and propellants as well as fuels and their combustion products Both locations may have been exposed to pollutants from the base Fires affected parts of the neighbouring settlement and up to the edges of a small body of water that marks the northerly extension of the Kyzyl-Yar site Smoke from the fires is likely to have affected local communities and deposited pollutants in the sea local assessment will be needed to gauge their ecological consequences Many of the pollutants associated with the fires and explosions are persistent in the environment and could continue to affect the area for many years to come A statement from the Russian Ministry of Defence incorrectly claimed that no aviation equipment at the airbase was damaged Long-Range Missiles? Special Op? Regardless, Crimean Air Base Blasts Are A ‘Real Quandary’ For Russia | RFE/RL Return to the country map here © 2025 Conflict and Environment Observatory | Charity No: 1174115 | Design by Open & Honest Explosions were heard in Yevpatoria in the temporarily occupied Crimea on the morning of May 25 Explosions were also reported in Novofedorivka according to the Telegram channel Crimean Wind and smoke is rising over Novofedorivka," the report states The Saky airfield is located in Novofedorivka It houses the 43rd Fighter Regiment of the Russian Federation which supports the occupying forces in southern Ukraine and is equipped with Su-24 bombers and Su-30 fighters it is mentioned online that the explosions in Novofedorivka may be related to a domestic fire There is information that private buildings near Yevpatoria are burning Photo: Smoke rising over Novofedorivka (t.me/Crimeanwind) Situation in Crimea It is worth noting that Ukrainian intelligence and defense forces have conducted dozens of operations in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the Black Sea The defenders are destroying Russian objects on the peninsula and enemy ships Recently, the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck the Dzhankoy airfield in northern Crimea, targeting the enemy's air defense systems. Sources from RBC-Ukraine confirmed that the explosions in the Dzhankoy area on April 17 were a special operation by the Ukrainian military By 2022-08-09T20:21:00+01:00 An important Russian air base on the Black Sea coast has been struck by several explosions of an unknown origin Numerous videos surfaced on social media on 9 August showing multiple detonations at the Saki air base in Novofedorivka The explosions were shown from multiple vantage points including apartment buildings and the peninsula’s famous beaches Source: Igor Bubin/Wikimedia Commons Crimea has been under the control of Russia since 2014 when the Black Sea Peninsula was annexed from Ukraine Flames and large columns of black smoke rose several storeys into the air in stark contrast to the sunny blue sky and nearby beachgoers The air base and Crimea as a whole were controlled by Ukraine until 2014 when Russian forces invaded and annexed the territory Ukraine still maintains that Crimea is Kyiv’s sovereign territory but has made no military moves to retake it Saki is currently home to Russian naval aviation assets including Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighters and Su-25 ground-attack jets The base was used as a staging point for Russian forces advancing from the south and to provide air support for troops fighting in the eastern part of Ukraine The cause of the 9 August explosions at Saki was not immediately clear The Russian defence ministry was quick to claim that an accidental detonation of munitions being stored at the facility is to blame The Kremlin denied that any aviation equipment or assets had been damaged Ukrainian officials in Kyiv offered no counter-explanation but speculation was rampant on social media that some sort of long-range strike by Ukraine’s forces was the cause On Saki Airbase in #Crimea. The first two explosions happen in the middle of drifting smoke from a clearly already established fire. Looks black like fuel. No missiles visible in any footage. Later a third explosion exactly the same size, colour and propagation rate occurs.(1/4) pic.twitter.com/jUdckCredB No footage showing incoming missiles or aircraft has yet emerged Moscow has previously made bellicose threats about the retaliation that will ensue following any Ukrainian strike on Crimea including attacks on “decision-making centres” in Kyiv a researcher of airpower and military technology at the UK think tank Royal United Services Institute says on Twitter that a likely explanation is a limited strike by local saboteurs using some type of unmanned air vehicle (UAV) “My best guess is that Ukrainian forces hit the base with a fairly small loitering munition or improvised UAV,” Bronk says via tweet Loitering munitions are small drones akin to aerial booby traps that can be operated manually or triggered autonomously by the presence of a target The USA and UK have provided several types of such weapons including the Aevex Aerospace Ghost Phoenix and AeroVironment Switchblade Bronk adds that the with at least three separate detonations and a fire observed the strike likely impacted either a parked aircraft of fuel lorry. He also notes that the Russian air force is known to stage makeshift ammunition dumps near combat aircraft “My working theory is that Ukrainian loitering munitions or saboteurs caused an initial fuel fire that engulfed either piles of bombs or armed aircraft,” he speculates via Twitter A similar-style strike on 1 August was also recorded at Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters at the Sevastpol naval base in Crimea Moscow blamed Ukrainian forces for that attack which authorities in Kyiv and Odessa denied Ukraine has made successful use of larger UAV platforms like the Baykar TB-2 Bayraktar throughout the six-month war long-endurance Bayraktar played a decisive role in the defensive of Kyiv in the conflict’s opening weeks A TB-2 was also reportedly used in April to distract the air defence systems of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva which was then struck by two anti-ship cruise missiles In both the sinking of the Moskva and the recent incident at Saki Russia’s defence ministry cited accidental fires as the culprit The US Air Force’s Middle East headquarters says Russian fighter aircraft conducted an unsafe intercept of an American MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle over Syria marking the latest incident in the conflicted airspace where both countries are operating The Russian government says a kinetic strike by an unmanned aerial vehicle targeted the country’s seat of power in Moscow in the early hours of 3 May with authorities attributing the attack to Ukraine The head of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has criticised Washington DC for not approving the provision of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) such as the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1C Gray Eagle to Ukraine.  The California company Stratolaunch is pioneering the development of a reusable flight vehicle capable of reaching speeds beyond Mach 5 Ten of the Boeing refuellers have been listed for sale on a US government auction website Norway has received US government approval to acquire up to 300 Raytheon AIM-9X Block II air-to-air missiles FlightGlobal is the global aviation community’s primary source of news analytics and advisory services to connect the aviation community globally and help organisations shape their business strategies identify new opportunities and make better decisions faster Site powered by Webvision Cloud member-first insights and commentary on the global aviation industry Three local witnesses told Reuters they had heard loud explosions and seen black smoke rising from the direction of a Russian military airbase at Novofedorivka in western Crimea on Tuesday Russia for decades leased the naval port of Sevastopol but annexed the entire peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 (Representational image)(AP) Videos purportedly captured at the scene The videos could not immediately be verified At least 12 explosions of varying intensity were heard in the course of a minute Also Read| This country will train Ukrainian military on landmine removal Russia for decades leased the naval port of Sevastopol has been spared the intense bombardment and artillery combat that have taken place in other areas of eastern and southern Ukraine since Feb when President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian armed forces into Ukraine The relevant satellite imagery was posted by Brady Africk, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, on the social media platform X “Damage from recent Ukrainian strikes on a Russian base in Crimea is visible in new satellite imagery,” Africk wrote this site is more than 120 kilometers from the front line A reminder that Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Mykola Oleshchuk confirmed that the Ukrainian military targeted a Russian command post at the Saky airfield The Ukrainian Air Force targeted the Saki airfield within the territory of occupied Crimea, hitting another enemy command point, reports the Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk, on Telegram The Commander noted that the Defense Forces targeted a command point at the Saki airfield situated near the town of Novofedorivka in western Crimea our Air Force have lost yet another command point in Crimea," wrote Oleshchuk the successful operation was achieved through the efforts of Ukrainian pilots The Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine expressed gratitude to them for their work It is known that the Saki airfield is home to the 43rd Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces supporting Russian forces in southern Ukraine The occupiers' group is equipped with Su-24 bombers and Su-30 fighters On the evening and night of January 6, powerful explosions were heard in the vicinity of Yevpatoria in western Crimea Witnesses reported an attack on the Saki airfield powerful explosions were heard in Sevastopol and Yevpatoria Russian occupiers had blocked traffic on the Crimean Bridge Later, the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that a junction point of Russian occupation forces near the occupied Sevastopol was targeted Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the operation was carried out by Ukrainian pilots.