Radio Liberty: explosion goes off at Russian Border Guards outpost near Crimea’s Simferopol

Local Telegram channels report explosion sounds in the annexed Crimea. Radio Liberty has investigated the photos posted online and found out that the explosion went off near the city of Simferopol at an outpost of Russia’s Border Guards Service.

The media outlet has geolocated the photos and say the former training ground of border guards near Skilne, a few km away from the Simferopol airport.

Mikhail Razvozhaev, the governor of Sevastopol, has claimed that “loud noises heard in the city are preventive training exercises”.

Chp Sevastopol Telegram channel says a loud explosion was heard near the Gogol street, as well as “over the city” and “somewhere from the city centre”.

On top of that, Radio Liberty Ukraine has posted satellite images of the oil deposit in Sevastopol that caught fire a few days ago.

A drone attack on Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, set fire to an oil reservoir on 29 April. The explosion destroyed more than 10 tanks with oil products with a total capacity of about 40,000 tons, intended for the needs of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, RBC-Ukraine reported, citing Andriy Yusov, a representative of the main intelligence department at the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.

Yusov referred to the incident as “divine retribution” for the Russian missile strike against a residential block in Uman that killed 23 civilians.