Crimea says to evacuate thousands over military site fire

MOSCOW, July 19: A fire broke out Wednesday at a military training field in annexed Crimea, the Russian-installed governor said, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of more than 2,000 civilians.

Authorities did not specify the cause of the blaze, but some Russian media reported that detonations were heard in the area and footage showed columns of black smoke in the sky.

The news comes days after Ukraine used waterborne drones to attack the Kerch bridge, a key military supply artery from mainland Russia to annex Crimea.

"The temporary evacuation of residents of four localities adjacent to the military field in the Kirovsky district is planned. That's more than 2,000 people," said the Moscow-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov.

A section of the Tavrida highway that crosses the peninsula had been closed due to the fire. Authorities were carrying out a "temporary evacuation" of residents from four settlements, he added, which would see more than 2,000 people moved.

Footage posted on the Telegram account of state-backed Izvestia newspaper purporting to show footage of the fire showed plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky.

Two Russian online media outlets reported that detonations had been audible in the area for over two hours.

Bus traffic on interregional routes had been "temporarily redirected", Nikolay Lukashenko from Crimea's transport ministry wrote on Telegram.

The Tavrida highway connects the eastern Crimean port of Kerch to Sevastopol on the peninsula's Black Sea coast in the west, according to Russia's TASS news agency.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move not recognised by the international community. Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to take back the peninsula.

(RSS/AFP)