Explosions at a reported Russian ammunition dump in occupied Crimea have forced thousands of people to evacuate and prompted leaders there to redirect traffic away from a local highway.
Videos on social media show cascading explosions at the site near Stary Krym in Crimeaβs Kirorvsky district.
The Russia-backed leader of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said on Telegram that βa fire occurred at a military training ground.β
The original cause of the fire is not known. The well-known Grey Zone Telegram channelΒ suggested thatΒ a Ukrainian Storm Shadow missile was responsible for the strike, but there is no official corrobration of that claim. An insurgent Ukrainian group in Crimea, Atesh,Β celebrated the fire but said that it was not responsible.