The head of Sevastopol reported on the downed drone in the area of the Belbek military airfield, the head of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev said that the air defense systems shot down the drone in the area of the Belbek airbase.
Kerch also reported the downing of a Ukrainian drone. It is noted that he was "at a great distance from the Crimean Bridge." As a result of the incidents, there were no casualties and destruction, local authorities reported. Earlier, Ukraine has repeatedly talked about a possible strike on the Crimean Bridge, and Moscow called such threats an "announcement of a terrorist attack."
A powerful explosion thundered in the sky over Kerch around 21:00. According to eyewitnesses, the sound was so strong that the walls trembled in the houses, and the alarm system went off in the cars parked in the yards.
"People jumped out onto the balconies, someone said they saw a flash in the sky," Komsomolskaya Pravda writes with reference to a local resident.
It is noted that the sound was heard in different parts of the city, as well as in the nearby villages of Priozernoye, Bagerovo and Glazovka. According to the local community in the "News of Kerch" VKontakte, several sounds of explosions were heard: at 20:41, 20:56 and 20:58.
Oleg Kryuchkov, adviser to the head of Crimea Sergey Aksenov on information policy, said that air defense systems had worked in Kerch.
"There is no danger for the city and the bridge," the official stressed. Later, he wrote that the Ukrainian media had launched a "massive information campaign against the residents of Crimea," declaring "the threat of the outbreak of hostilities" on the peninsula. Kryuchkov urged to believe only official information.
The drone in the Kerch area was captured by the main council of the administration of the Zaporozhye region, Vladimir Rogov, later reported that a Ukrainian drone was shot down in the Kerch area.
An attempt to attack an airfield in Sevastopol Telegram channels with reference to eyewitnesses also reported powerful explosions in the area of the Belbek airbase in Sevastopol.
According to preliminary data, an air defense system also shot down a drone near the Belbek airfield.
He urged to remain calm and trust information only from verified sources. "The Ukropabliks already see that they have begun to disperse the blanks about their "successful" attack," he pointed out.
There is a yellow (high) level of terrorist danger in Crimea. Earlier it was extended until August 24. The same regime applies in the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions.
On August 17, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, in an interview with The Guardian, announced plans of the Ukrainian armed forces to destroy the Crimean Bridge. He called the construction of the bridge "illegal" and stressed the great military importance of the crossing for Russia.
"Such objects should be destroyed," Podolyak said. He did not specify exactly how it is planned to attack the Crimean bridge, however, the newspaper notes, the politician made it clear that Ukraine considers the bridge as a "military target."
Plans to attack Crimea, Politico, citing a senior White House official, wrote that the United States allowed Ukraine to use American weapons for strikes on Crimea.
Earlier, Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov, in an interview with the Voice of America (the organization is included in the list of foreign agents by the Ministry of Justice), said that Kiev had agreed with Washington that it would not use the supplied weapons on objects in Russia. However, this does not apply to Crimea, Donbass and a number of other territories.
"If today we are talking about the de-occupation of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, where the enemy is located, then accordingly we have no such restrictions," Reznikov said.
He also evasively answered the question of whether Ukraine has weapons capable of striking Crimea.
"Any weapon has an appropriate range of destruction. Therefore, depending on which point, from which location it is being inflicted or planned to inflict defeat, it means whether it is possible to achieve this or that goal," the minister said.
Reznikov made it clear that Ukraine has not yet received ATACMS missiles from the United States for the HIMARS MLRS, whose range is 300 km.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry previously admitted that they could strike at the territory of Crimea with the help of HIMARS MLRS, since the United States does not consider the peninsula to be part of Russia. At the same time, the bridge from Kerch to Taman became "the number one goal," said Major General of the Armed Forces Dmitry Marchenko. The office of the Ukrainian president stated that they would strike at the Crimean Bridge as soon as the "first technical opportunity" appeared, noting that equipment was being delivered to the peninsula via the bridge.
The Federation Council of the Russian Federation called these statements proof of the need for "denazification and demilitarization" of the entire territory of Ukraine. The Kremlin called such threats "the announcement of a possible terrorist act."
On the morning of August 16, a fire broke out on the territory of a temporary military warehouse in the Dzhankoy district of Crimea, followed by the detonation of ammunition stored there. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the cause of the incident was sabotage.
On August 9, a series of explosions occurred on the territory of the Saki military airfield near the village of Novofedorovka in the Crimea. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that several aviation ammunition detonated at the collapsed storage site. As a result, a fire broke out. The agency ruled out the possibility of shelling.
Alice Andreeva
