Crimean officials detail size of blasts, contradicting Kremlin

Explosions at an airbase in Russian-occupied territory damaged 62 apartment buildings and forced hundreds to seek shelter . Satellite images showed destroyed fighter jets.

ODESA, Ukraine — After explosions ripped through a Russian air base in Crimea on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry quickly downplayed the extent of the damage, saying an ammunition explosion caused no casualties and no equipment was destroyed.

Videos The scene and an assessment by local officials, who declared a state of emergency, told a very different story, with at least one person killed, more than a dozen injured and hundreds moved to shelters. More than 60 apartment buildings were damaged, along with 20 shops and other buildings, officials said. And on the grounds of the base, after the huge plumes of smoke cleared, you could see the remains of a fighter jet seemingly melted into the tarmac. Satellite imagery showed craters, burn marks and at least eight destroyed fighter jets.

The images and local officials' report on Wednesday contradicted the account Kremlin foretelling of what happened in Crimea, a strategic peninsula in southern Ukraine that Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and suggested the destruction there was far greater than acknowledged. p>

If the Ukrainian army and partisans were responsible for the explosions, as a senior Ukrainian official said, it would not only represent an embarrassment for President Vladimir V. Putin , which often celebrates annexation, but also a challenge to its army's ability to defend occupied territory which it has heavily fortified for years.

It is not yet clear whether the explosions will hamper Russia's ability to defend against a developing counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces in the south. But the extensive damage in areas near the blast, along with satellite imagery and video of the plane's wreckage, suggest significant destruction of military assets that will be crucial as Russia tries to hold on to seized territories. at the start of the war. /p>

ImageBeachgoers in Novofedorivka, Russian-occupied Crimea, were first surprised by an explosion at a nearby Russian military airbase on Tuesday. Black Sea coastal region of Ukraine. Ukraine's military intelligence service named several dozen pilots from the base it accused of carrying out attacks on civilian areas.

Damage to the air base itself were difficult to assess on Wednesday. A video that emerged in the aftermath, verified by The New York Times, showed the charred nose cone of a fighter jet, its fuselage a shapeless black mass.

Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the episode was caused by the explosion of ammunition stored for fighter jets at the base. The statement did not mention Ukraine or its military.

Satellite images, collected by the company Planet Labs and reviewed by The New York Times, disputed the accounts of the damage by Russia. The footage, one taken hours before the explosions and one taken a day after, did not show...