August 10, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

A satellite image from August 10, after the explosion, shows the charred remains of at least seven aircraft in the earthen berms.?

At least two explosions on Tuesday destroyed at least seven Russian aircrafts at an air base in Russian-annexed Crimea, a new satellite image from Planet Labs shows.

The cause of the explosion is still unknown. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense says it could not determine the cause, while the Russian Ministry of Defense said the blasts were caused by detonated aviation ammunition but did not reveal how it had been detonated.

A satellite image from Aug. 9 shows several fighter jets sitting inside earthen berm bays in the Saki Air Base.?The satellite image from Aug. 10, after the explosion, shows the charred remains of at least seven aircrafts in the earthen berms.?

The fate of the aircraft sitting on the flightline is unclear from the satellite image. Additional aircraft on the flightline and tarmac appear unharmed.

At least four craters are seen in this area of the base. In the area around the earthen berms and flightline, there is a noticeable burn mark and scarred vegetation.

The amount of destroyed planes on Tuesday may wind up making it one of the most destructive days for Russian Air Force aircraft since World War II, including the Soviet-era.?The little available data on military aircraft losses during the Soviet era and modern Russia era do not indicate such substantial losses from a single incident, on a single day.??

The explosion killed at least one person, and injured at least nine, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health of Crimea.?

Russia annexed Crimea?from Ukraine in 2014 and?considers Crimea part of its territory. Kyiv and its allies do not recognize the annexation and consider the peninsula Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation.

Ukrainian forces have hit an industrial site in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, causing a fire and an ammonia leak, the head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Territorial Defense said in a Telegram post.?

The state emergency services of the DPR said in an update that at least one person has died and two were injured following the hit.

“At the time of the accident there were 32 people on the brewery’s grounds. According to preliminary information, one person died and two were injured,” they said in a statement.

They said the fire was “still being extinguished.”

“At the moment the MES Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Group is conducting investigation of the area to determine the location of the ammonia leak and the maximum permissible concentration levels,” they added.

The state emergency services of the DPR is also warning people to remain indoors.

“The population must be inside the premises. Take measures for additional sealing of your apartments (houses), and premises. Breathe through cotton-gauze bandages moistened with a 5% solution of citric or acetic acid,” it said in a Telegram post.

“Tell your neighbors about the information you receive. Help the elderly, the sick, and children as needed,” the post also read

A view of the damage after missile and artillery strikes by Russian forces in Marhanets, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine on Wednesday, August 10.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country’s military will respond to Russia’s shelling of Marhanets, which killed at least 13 people and injured another 10.?

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine, our intelligence, and our law enforcement agencies will not leave today’s Russian shelling of the Dnipropetrovsk region unanswered,” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Wednesday.?

The Ukrainian president went on to say the quickest way to end the war would be to inflict as many casualties as possible on Russia.?

“This is what everyone who defends our state and helps Ukraine should think about: how to inflict the greatest possible losses on the occupiers so that the time of the war is shorter,” he added.?

Zelensky went on to reiterate the Ukraine would liberate the entire country from Russian occupation.?

“We expelled the Russian army from the northern regions. We expelled the invaders from our Zmiinyi island. They already feel that the time has come to flee from Kherson and from the south of our country in general,” he said. “There will be a time when they will flee from the Kharkiv region, from Donbas, from Crimea… And everyone who can help this should help this.”

People inspect damage after Russian shelling in a village of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine on Aug. 10.

Heavy rocket fire and artillery attacks hit?multiple regions across Ukraine?overnight and into Wednesday, but on the main battlefield in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military said it has been able to prevent Russian advances toward the towns of Avdiivka and Bakhmut. Ukraine’s general staff said Russia had continued to use artillery to try and attack Ukrainian lines.

G7 nations are demanding that Russia give back full control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and other nuclear facilities to Ukraine, amid growing concern from international organizations that nearby fighting could lead to catastrophic consequences.

Meanwhile, the European Union has banned imports on Russian coal, starting Wednesday.

Here are the top headlines to know:

Civilians shelter in a basement in Soledar, Ukraine, as heavy shelling continues, on Aug. 10.

Pro-Russian separatist forces say they have entered the Donetsk towns of Soledar and Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, the spokesperson for the militia of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) told Russian broadcasters on Wednesday.

“At the moment, in Soledar and Artemivsk (Bakhmut in Ukrainian), we entered the border of the city, to the industrial zone where the fighting is going on,” Basurin said.

Basurin added DPR forces had surrounded Avdiivka and were in control of most of Pisky and Marinka.

“Those Ukrainian soldiers who remain in the city will be captured or die. Because the choice is theirs: stay alive or die,” he concluded.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian forces said they had repelled Russian assaults near Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

The interim coordinator for the Black Sea grain deal says the program is off to a “good start.”

Frederick Kenney, interim coordinator for the UN at the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) for the Black Sea initiative, says there has been no illegal contraband found in any of the shipments of grain from Ukraine.

The coordinator spoke by video link from Istanbul to UN reporters in New York.

He praised the deal members for cooperating. He cited Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the UN in keeping the 120-day deal working successfully. Kenney said today saw the most shipment traffic. He said three ships were coming out of Ukraine and two were outbound.

Kenney reported getting many phone calls from prospective shippers interested in participating, but said the grain arrangement is in its “early days.”

A Ukrainian serviceman fires an anti-aircraft cannon at a position near a front line in the?Ukraine's Kharkiv?region, on Aug. 10.

The Ukrainian military says it has been able to prevent Russian advances toward the Donetsk towns of Avdiivka and Bakhmut, as well as near the city of Kharkiv, its general staff said in an update on Wednesday evening.

“[Russia] tried to advance in the areas of the settlements of Bakhmut, Kodema, Spirne, Yakovlivka, and Soledar with offensive and assault actions, it did not succeed, it withdrew,” the general staff said. “The enemy carried out offensive actions in the directions of Avdiivka and Pisky, received a worthy repulse, and withdrew.”

The general staff said Russia had continued to use artillery to try and attack Ukrainian lines.

“With the aim of displacing Ukrainian units from the occupied borders, the enemy used barrel, rocket artillery, and tanks,” it said, accusing Moscow of targeting civilian infrastructure.

Reconnaissance with UAVs and some airstrikes were also reported across the eastern frontline.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces also tried to advance on certain positions around Kharkiv in order to “improve their tactical position,” but failed.

“Ukrainian soldiers inflicted significant losses on the invaders and forced them to flee back,” it said. “In the Kharkiv direction, the enemy actively conducted aerial reconnaissance by UAVs. It devotes significant efforts to improving the logistical support of units operating in this direction.”

In the Southern flank, Russian forces continued to focus on defending their positions with some occasional air and land-based reconnaissance assaults, the General Staff concluded.

Bulk carrier Osprey S arrives to the seaport in?Chornomorsk, Ukraine on Aug. 10. The sign reads: 'Caution! Mines!'

Another bulk carrier has arrived in Ukraine to help export grain from the war-afflicted country, according to Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov.

It’s the second carrier to arrive since a deal to facilitate cereal exports from the country was struck in Istanbul last month.?

“The 2nd bulk carrier arrived at the port of Chornomorsk for loading,” Kubrakov tweeted on Wednesday. “OSPREY S is ready to export 30,000 thousand tons of corn. Let’s keep working!”

More background: Russia had been blocking maritime access to Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, meaning that millions of tons of Ukrainian grain wasn’t exported to the many countries that rely on it.

The M/V Razoni — the first grain ship to leave Ukraine since the early days of the war — departed the Black Sea port of Odesa on August 1, carrying more than 26,000 metric tons of corn under the UN-brokered deal. But a buyer in Lebanon rejected it due to delayed delivery, according to a statement from the country’s Ukrainian embassy.?

Ukrainian officials said they aim increase grain shipments to three to five vessels per day within the next two weeks.

At least seven people were killed as a result of heavy shelling by Russian forces on the Donetsk region town of Bakhmut, the regional prosecutor’s office said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.?

According to the prosecutor’s office, another six people were injured by land mines or suffered shrapnel wounds.

Moscow’s offensive in eastern Ukraine has been moving at a slow pace, and Russian forces have struggled to gain ground in the Donetsk region around Bakhmut.

Ukraine also accused Russia of hitting civilian targets using Uragan surface-to-air missiles.

“The invaders’ shells hit shops, private houses and high-rise buildings,” the prosecutor’s office said. “Currently, complete data on the dead and injured, as well as the number of destroyed houses is being established, fires continue in the city.”

The head of the Donetsk regional administration, Pavlo Kyrylenko, has accused Russian forces of targeting the residential areas in the town of Bakhmut.

“At around 11:40, the Russians opened fire on the city with MRLS. The blow was again to the residential quarter,” Kyrylenko said in a Telegram post on Wednesday.

CNN could not independently verify his accusations. Russian forces have been found to have targeted civilian infrastructure in the past but have also continuously denied doing so.

“According to preliminary estimates, 12 houses were damaged, and four of them caught fire,” Kyrylenko also said.

Former Russian state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been detained by the Investigative Committee of Russia, she said on her Telegram channel Wednesday.

“At 6:00 am, when I was still sleeping, ten officers from the Investigative Committee and the police broke into my house. A search warrant was presented,” Ovsyannikova wrote.

“Now they are taking me to the Investigative Committee,” she added.?

According to Ovsyannikova, she has been charged with spreading “fake news”?during her anti-war protest action on the Sofiyskaya Embankment in Moscow.

Journalist Marina Ovsyannikova answers journalists' questions as she arrives for court in Moscow on Aug. 8.

Ovsyannikova, an anti-war protester who previously worked as an editor for Russian state TV Channel One,?took a dramatic stand?against President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine during a live broadcast in March when she broke into the studio and appeared behind a news anchor with a sign that said: “NO WAR.”

She told CNN on Monday she had already received three fines for a total sum of 120,000 rubles (just under $2,000) for her anti-war statements, including for allegedly “discrediting” the army in a Facebook post she published in July.?

CNN has reached out to Ovsyannikova’s lawyer for details.

A senior Ukrainian commander has said the goal is to liberate the Kherson region by the end of the year.

“Unfortunately, I can’t give you a timeframe or a date. But I want to convey to the people of Kherson … it will not be as long as everyone expects. It will be fast,” Major Gen. Dmytro Marchenko said in an interview with?RBC-Ukraine. “In the near future, they will see and hear everything.”?

Asked whether the goal was to liberate Kherson by the end of the year, Marchenko said, “100%,” specifying that it is the goal for ending Russian occupation in Kherson and the “end of active phase of the war.”

“And then some more local military operations will take place. But by the end of the year we must complete the main phase of this war,” he added.

Marchenko also spoke about Ukrainian attacks designed to disable bridges across the River Dnipro that have been used by Russian forces to resupply units in Kherson.

The bridge at Nova Kakhovka, the site of an important hydro-electric plant “has already been hit. But it is very difficult to damage, because there are critical objects there. If we hit them, we might hit the dam gates,” he noted. “But I think that soon, this bridge will be so damaged that they cannot transfer their reserves over it. As soon as the reserves are cut off: Welcome to Ukraine. We will beat them and drive them out.”

Marchenko also insisted that Ukraine planned to liberate Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.

“Crimea is Ukraine. It is our land, our people are there, who are still forced to sit in the occupation. No one gave Russia the right to come, take a piece of land and say that ‘this is mine.’ We will retake Crimea, just as we will retake Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk,” he said.

Marchenko also deemed it “a necessary measure” to target the only road bridge into Crimea from Russia as part of Ukrainian military’s plan “in order to deprive them of the opportunity to provide reserves and reinforce their troops from Russian territory.”

In the end, he struck an optimistic note.

“If we have the amount of weapons that we were promised, that we need, then I think next spring we will celebrate the victory.”

Russian forces are no longer able to use the railway line linking Crimea with the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, which the Russians have occupied since the early days of the invasion, according to Serhii Khlan, advisor to the head of Kherson’s Civil Military Administration.

“This is the branch that went through Kalanchak, Brylivka to the Oleshky railway station and across the railway bridge to Kherson itself,” he said, adding that another route was from Crimea to Melitopol.

“It was there that the occupiers delivered their railway trains and unloaded them a little further beyond Novooleksiyivka in Henichesk district. Another convoy with equipment and ammunition was destroyed there yesterday,” he added.

CNN reported Tuesday there had been explosions in the Henichesk area.

Ukrainian forces — combat aircraft, missiles and long-range rockets — have focused on hitting Russian supply lines, command centers and ammunition supplies in Kherson for more than a month.

Russian ground forces typically depend on railroad links to move armor and munitions.

Meanwhile, in the neighboring Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, the mayor said resistance and attacks continue — just as Russian troops there are being reinforced.

Mayor Ivan Fedorov, who is no longer in the city himself, said on Ukrainian television that Tuesday “was the third hellish night for the occupiers on the territory of occupied Melitopol.”

He said two explosions were heard on Tuesday evening near the village of Kyrylivka, a coastal settlement on the Sea of Azov.

“Thick smoke was then observed for several hours,” Fedorov said. “Over the past few weeks, the occupiers have taken a large amount of equipment to the shore of the estuary at Radyvonivka, as well as to the shore of the Sea of Azov near Kyrylivka.”

Fedorov also claimed that “guerrillas” on Tuesday night had damaged the office of Russia’s governing United Russia party, which had been established in Melitopol.

He also repeated claims that Russian forces were preventing people from leaving Melitopol.

Fedorov said that the Russians were forcing people to send their children to Russia-backed schools.

“The occupiers use several methods to force parents to send their children to schools to study according to the Russian curriculum. The occupiers reported that starting Sept. 1, they will not let children outside the occupied territory. Those parents who bring their children to school will receive 10,000 rubles as financial aid from the occupiers,” he said.

CNN is unable to confirm the allegations.

Oil supplies to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic via the?the southern line of the Druzhba pipeline?will resume on Wednesday after the Hungarian energy group MOL paid the fee for use of the Ukrainian section of the line.?

Ukrainian operator?Ukrtransnafta?suspended the pumping of Russian oil through the southern line of the Druzhba oil pipeline on Aug. 4 because it could not receive the transit fees due to EU sanctions restrictions, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, quoting Russian firm Transneft.?

Transneft told Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti on Wednesday that it plans to resume pumping oil through the pipeline at 4 p.m. Moscow time (9 a.m. ET).

CNN’s Radina Gigova contributed reporting to this post.

Photo taken on Aug. 4 shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

G7 nations on Wednesday demanded that Russia give back full control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and other nuclear facilities to Ukraine, amid growing concern from international organizations that nearby fighting could lead to catastrophic consequences.

“It is Russia’s continued control of the plant that endangers the region,” the statement said, adding that Ukrainian staff operating the plant must be free to perform their duties without being threatened or pressured by occupying Russian forces.

Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for recent artillery and rocket fire around the nuclear plant in central Ukraine, which UN Secretary General António Guterres described as “suicidal.”

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said on Tuesday that shelling at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on Saturday “breached virtually” all the seven “nuclear safety and security pillars,” but there was “no immediate threat to nuclear safety.”

Russia’s control of the nuclear power plant is also undermining the IAEA’s ability to monitor Ukraine’s peaceful nuclear activities for safety purposes, according to the G7 statement.

“We underline the importance of facilitating a mission of IAEA experts to the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant to address nuclear safety, security and safeguard concerns, in a manner that respects full Ukrainian sovereignty over its territory and infrastructure,” said the G7 statement, which reiterated the group’s “full and continued support”?for the IAEA.

CNN’s Sugam Pokharel contributed reporting to this post.

The US military tracked and identified Russian aircraft flying into Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone on two separate occasions on Monday, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).?

In both instances, it was a single Russian surveillance aircraft the military tracked. On the second occasion, which occurred on Monday night, NORAD sent F-22 fighter jets to intercept the surveillance aircraft.?

“The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said in a statement.

The ADIZ is international airspace adjacent to Alaska that extends in places more than 100 miles from US territory. The US military initiates identification procedures for aircraft in the ADIZ in the interest of national security.?

The incursions into the?Alaskan?Area Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) were not deemed to be escalatory, several defense officials told CNN.

The Russian aircraft did not operate in a way that was unsafe or unprofessional, one defense official said, nor did they enter Alaska’s Exclusive Economic Zone.?

Officials say a similar incident happened earlier this year.

The situation on the main battlefield in the Donetsk region remains unchanged, despite attacks by Russian forces in multiple locations, while a European Union ban on Russian coal comes into force today.

Here are the latest headlines:

Spain set a maximum air-conditioning temperature of 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 Fahrenheit) in stores and many public indoor settings starting Wednesday, as an energy savings law took effect in light of Russia’s “threats” to interrupt natural gas supply to Western Europe.?

“Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the threats of a partial or total interruption of natural gas supply from Russia to the European Union have been more frequent,” according to Spain’s official state bulletin on August 2, which published the energy savings law.?

The energy savings plan aims to reduce demand for gas and oil in Spain by 5 percent in the short term, and expand the use of green energy sources, said a government statement on August 1.?

European Union member states, including Spain, agreed to a “voluntary reduction of natural gas demand by 15 percent this winter,” the EU said in a statement on July 26.?

The air conditioning maximum of 27C applies to department stores and smaller shops, hotel lobbies, cinemas, theaters, airports, train stations and government buildings, under the law approved by Spain’s Socialist government earlier this month.?

The new law takes effect as maximum temperatures in many parts of country this week are expected to be around 35C (95F), following Spain’s hottest July in over 60 years, the national weather service said.?

Stores are also required to turn off their showcase window lighting at 10 p.m., when government buildings also have to shut off decorative exterior lighting.

Spanish media reported that the country’s largest department store chain turned off its showcase lights at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, just before the law took effect.?

The Madrid regional government, run by the main conservative party, blasted the rules as “arbitrary and authoritarian” and unconstitutional.?

It complained that the Socialist government’s law will make Madrid the only European capital to turn off its store showcase lights by 10 p.m.

The new law also requires stores with street access to have doors that can easily close, including automatically, so that they don’t remain open and waste energy while using air conditioning or heating, said Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera, adding they would have to comply by September 30.?

A representative for Madrid small shop owners told Spain’s SER radio that the requirement would be costly for his sector, at an estimated 12,000 Euros ($12,290) per shop.?

The new law will limit winter heating temperatures to a maximum of 19C (66.2F) in the same public spaces where the maximum of 27C air conditioning rules apply in summer. The law will be in effect until October 1, 2023, the government said.?

A European Union ban on imports of Russian coal, agreed to by member states in April, began today.

The coal ban was part of a fifth round of EU sanctions imposed on Russia following ?revelations of atrocities?in Ukraine, including the killing of civilians in the town of Bucha.

All forms of Russian coal are banned from the European Union, a move that the European Commission said would affect about 8 billion euros worth of Russian exports per year.?

The ban constituted the first coordinated embargo by the EU on the vast energy exports that power Russia’s economy and generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue each year.

EU leaders struggled to agree on targeting Russian energy because of the risk posed to the region’s economy during a time of soaring natural gas and fuel prices.?

Europe imports almost half of its coal from Russia, but demand for the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel was already waning,?and alternative supplies are more readily available than for natural gas.

“Sanctioning coal will make life much more difficult for European utilities, which consume a lot of Russian coal, but energy companies can cope with this, and politicians find this an easier sale publicly because it chimes well with the general and accelerating EU green transition,” Henning Gloystein, director of energy, climate and resources at Eurasia Group, told CNN Business in April.

Russia was the world’s third largest exporter of coal in 2020, behind Australia and Indonesia, according to the IEA. It’s also the leading exporter of thermal coal to the European Union, ahead of China and South Korea.

Supplies of Russian oil to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia through the Druzhba? pipeline have been suspended due to sanctions restrictions imposed by the European Union, Russian oil firm Transneft said Tuesday.

Ukrainian operator?Ukrtransnafta?suspended the pumping of Russian oil because it could not receive transit fees due to EU sanctions restrictions, Transneft told Russian state news agency TASS.

“Ukrtransnafta suspended providing services on transportation of oil through Ukrainian territory starting August 4, 2022, due to the lack of receipt of monetary funds for services provided,” said Transneft. “The transit via the northern line of the?Druzhba?oil pipeline through Belarus towards Poland and Germany is per normal.”

Transneft?made a payment on July 22 but it was returned to the company’s account, it said.?

“As of now the European banks (correspondents) are no longer authorized to independently decide on the possibility of this or that transaction,” Transneft said.

“To confirm the fact that the transaction is not among those banned it is necessary to obtain a permit from the national authorized state body. The fact that European regulators have not yet articulated a consensus on the algorithm of actions for banks in various jurisdictions, as well as the order of providing such permits, makes things even more complicated,” it added.

To resolve the issue, Transneft has submitted a request to the authorized bank to transfer information to the European regulator to obtain a permit to carry out payments, according to TASS, while alternative options for making payments are also being investigated.

Promises of freedom and riches are made to convicts in cramped jail cells. Frantic phone calls ensue between relatives and inmates weighing the offer. Then prisoners vanish, leaving their loved ones to sift through reports of the wounded arriving in hospitals.

This scene is playing out in the convict communities across Russia. With a regular army stretched thin after nearly six months of a disastrously executed and?bloody invasion of Ukraine, there’s increasing evidence that the Kremlin is making ugly choices in its ugly war and recruiting Russia’s prisoners to fight.

Over a month-long investigation, CNN has spoken to inmates caught up in Russia’s newest recruitment scheme, along with their relatives and friends. Activists believe hundreds have been approached in dozens of prisons across Russia — from murderers to drug offenders.

Read the full story here.

Heavy rocket fire and artillery attacks hit multiple regions across Ukraine overnight, from Zaporizhzhia in the south to Kharkiv in the north.

On the southern front, Ukrainian air defenses shot down two incoming missiles near Zaporizhzhia, according to the regional military administration, and four more attacks were reported just south of the city early Wednesday.

The city of Mykolaiv came under rocket fire again Tuesday night, with three civilians injured.

“Fighting continues in settlements bordering Mykolaiv Region and Dnipropetrovsk Region. In most communities, the situation remains tense, more and more villages are on the verge of destruction,” the regional administration said.?

Authorities in Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine reported attacks on several districts, with destruction of property but no civilian casualties.

On the main battlefield in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military said several efforts by Russian troops to push forward had been resisted.

However artillery fire persisted along much of the frontline, with Avdiivka, Soledar, Bakhmut and Siversk among settlements hit by rocket, tank and artillery fire, said the military. Two civilians were reported killed in Donetsk.

The Ukrainian military also reported further attacks against Russian positions in the Kherson region, and said that “an enemy warehouse was destroyed in the Henichesk district of the Kherson region” on Tuesday.

Henichesk is close to Crimea. CNN reported the attack on Tuesday.?

Smoke rises after explosions were heard from the direction of a Russian military airbase near Novofedorivka,?Crimea?on August 9.

The number of people injured by massive explosions at the Novofedorivka air base in Crimea has risen to 13, according to the Crimean Health Ministry.

One person was killed by the explosions, which took place Tuesday.

The detonations also caused damage in a nearby town, with windows blown out. High-rise buildings lost power, while shops and a cultural center were damaged, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Russia invaded and subsequently annexed?Crimea?from Ukraine in 2014.

The explosions: On Tuesday, Russian state media RIA Novosti initially reported the blasts had been caused by detonated aviation ammunition “on the territory of the airfield ‘Saki’” near?Novofedorivka.

Ukraine has not officially said its forces were responsible for the explosions. But an adviser to the Interior Minister, Anton Gerashchenko, said Wednesday that satellite images of the airfield hours before the attack showed there were more than 30 aircraft and helicopters there.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian armed forces added nine aircraft to the tally of Russian military hardware they say has been destroyed.

Zelensky on Crimea: On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the war “began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – its liberation.”

A large fire has broken out in the Russian port of Yeysk on the Sea of Azov, near the Russia-Ukraine border.

Yeysk is located across the water from the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, which was targeted heavily during the start of the invasion.

Social media videos and images geolocated by CNN show a thick plume of dark smoke drifting across the town. One video shows a substantial explosion occurring.

Russian state news agency TASS said a fire broke out in a hangar building spanning 550 square meters. Emergency services are on the scene and there are no casualties, TASS reported, citing the Ministry of Emergency Situations in Krasnodar.

Local and regional authorities have not released any official comment.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Shelling by Russian forces killed 13 people and critically wounded five others in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, according to the head of the region’s military administration.

The towns of Myrivska and Marhanets in Nikopol district were hit by 80 rockets that landed in residential areas late Tuesday night, Valentyn Reznichenko wrote in a Telegram post Wednesday.

Marhanets sits on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

More than 20 high-rise buildings, a cultural center, two schools, the city council building and several other administrative buildings were struck, Reznichenko said.

Several thousand people are without electricity in Marhanets, while up to a thousand people in Myrivska are without gas, according to Reznichenko. “It was a tragic night,” he wrote in the post.

Some context: Kyiv has accused Russian forces of storing heavy weaponry in and launching attacks from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which they took over in early March. Moscow, meanwhile, has claimed Ukrainian troops are targeting the complex. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described recent artillery and rocket fire in the area as “suicidal,” further adding to fears of an accident at the plant, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.

The US believes Russian officials have begun training on drones in Iran, the latest sign that Moscow plans to buy the systems for its war in Ukraine.

CNN has reached out to the Russian Embassy in Washington for comment. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov?said last month?that Russia had “no comments on the matter” when asked by reporters about the drones.

CNN first reported?last month that a Russian delegation had visited an airfield in central Iran at least twice since June to?examine weapons-capable drones, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan and satellite imagery obtained exclusively by CNN.

Read the full story here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during his evening video message on Tuesday August 9.

Ukraine must liberate annexed Crimea to end its war with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday.

Russia’s occupation of Crimea threatens global security, he added.

“The presence of Russian occupiers in Crimea is a threat to the entire Europe and to global stability. (…) There will be no stable and lasting peace in many countries on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea as long as Russia is able to use our peninsula as its military base,” Zelensky said.

On Tuesday, a series of explosions were reported in the area of a Russian air base in Crimea. There has been no word from the Ukrainian side about any attack in the area. Ukraine is not known to have struck the territory of Crimea since the Russian invasion began.

Russia invaded and subsequently annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Smoke rises after explosions were heard from the direction of a Russian military airbase near Novofedorivka, Crimea on August 9.

One person has died and multiple others were injured in a series of large explosions that rocked the area of a Russian military airbase in the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea on Tuesday, local authorities have said.

Footage from the scene showed large plumes of smoke billowing into the air. The Russian defense ministry said the blasts had been caused by detonated aviation ammunition, Russian state media RIA Novosti reported.

Earlier on Tuesday Kоnstantin Skorupsky, Minister of Health of the Republic of Crimea, said five people were injured following the explosions. It is not clear if the person who died was among those previously reported as injured.

Ambulance crews and an air ambulance were sent to the site of the explosions, according to the health ministry.

There was no word from the Ukrainian side about any possible attacks in the area. Ukraine is not known to have struck the territory of Crimea since the Russian invasion began.

Russia annexed Crimea?from Ukraine in 2014 and?considers Crimea part of its territory. Kyiv and its allies do not recognize the annexation and consider the peninsula Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation.

Read the full story here.