On the similar time, Russian forces have been build up their defensive positions throughout the already closely militarized peninsula. Satellite tv for pc images revealed by personal corporations in current weeks reveal a rising community of trenches and different fortifications.

On Saturday, a spokesman for Ukraine’s army intelligence service stated the hearth on the gasoline depot in Sevastopol was “God’s punishment” for Uman, the town the place a Russian missile strike a day earlier killed 23 folks, together with six youngsters. Two girls stay lacking, in line with the Ukrainian inside minister, Ihor Klymenko.

“This punishment might be long-lasting,” the spokesman, Andriy Yusov, stated. “All residents of the quickly occupied Crimea shouldn’t be close to army amenities and amenities that offer the aggressor’s military within the close to future.”

He claimed that greater than 10 tanks with oil merchandise with a complete capability of 40,000 tons had been destroyed in Saturday’s blaze. Nonetheless, the native Russian authorities stated that the harm was much less intensive and that the hearth had been extinguished as of the afternoon. Whereas Mr. Razvozhaev initially stated that two drones had hit the gasoline depot, he later clarified to say {that a} second drone had been shot down earlier than it reached the goal.

Whereas Ukrainian officers cheer the assaults on Crimea, the army usually doesn’t take credit score with a view to keep operational secrecy. Kyiv doesn’t need Moscow to know what long-range weapons it has at its disposal, even because it engages in bold fund-raising campaigns to increase its fleet of long-range aerial and maritime drones, officers say.

On Saturday morning, the billowing smoke from the hearth on the oil depot on Kazachya Bay may very well be seen for miles. It was burning an space of about 10,000 sq. toes, Mr. Razvozhaev stated, including that there could be no evacuation of the native space and gasoline provides for drivers wouldn’t be affected.

• Russian shelling: A 63-year-old man was killed in his mattress and a 14-year-old boy was injured early Saturday morning after shelling hit residential communities alongside the border of Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv area, the nation’s northern army command stated.

• Additional casualties: In Ukraine’s southern Kherson area, shelling within the city of Bilozerka hit a hospital and a number of other personal houses, killing a 57-year-old lady in her own residence and injuring three extra folks, the regional army administration stated on Friday night.

• Pope in Hungary: Pope Francis visited Ukrainian refugees in Budapest on Saturday, saying he was moved by their dedication to discovering “a distinct future, removed from the horrors of warfare.” He then had what the Vatican’s official outlet referred to as a “cordial” assembly with a consultant of the Russian Orthodox Church — a diplomatically delicate assembly given the church’s shut ties to the Kremlin.

Marc Santora reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Victoria Kim from Seoul. Anatoly Kurmanaev contributed reporting from Berlin, and Anushka Patil from New York.