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At the same time, Russian forces have built defensive positions on the heavily militarized peninsula. Satellite photos published by private companies in recent weeks show a network of trenches and other fortifications.
On Saturday, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence service said the fire at a fuel depot in Sevastopol was “God’s punishment” for Uman, the city where a Russian missile attack the previous day killed 23 people, including six children. Two women remain missing, according to Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko.
“This punishment will last a long time,” said the spokesman, Andriy Yusov. “All citizens of the temporarily occupied Crimea should not be close to the facilities and military facilities that supply the invading army in the future.”
He claimed that more than 10 tanks with oil products with a total capacity of 40,000 tons were destroyed during the fire on Saturday. However, local Russian authorities said the damage was minimal and the fire had been extinguished by the evening. While Mr. Razvozhaev initially said that two drones had crashed into a fuel depot, he later clarified that the second drone was shot down before reaching its target.
While Ukrainian officials cheered the attack on Crimea, the military usually did not take credit for maintaining operational secrecy. Kyiv does not want Moscow to know what long-range weapons it has, even as it is engaged in an ambitious fundraising campaign to expand its fleet of long-range aerial and maritime drones, officials said.
On Saturday morning, smoke from the fire at the oil depot in Kazachya Bay could be seen for several kilometers. It burned an area of about 10,000 square feet, Mr. Razvozhaev said, adding that there would be no evacuation of local areas and fuel supplies for drivers would not be affected.
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Russian attack: A 63-year-old man died in his bed and a 14-year-old boy was wounded on Saturday morning after gunfire hit a residential community on the border of Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, the country’s northern military command said.
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Other victims: In Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, an attack in the town of Bilozerka hit a hospital and several private homes, killing a 57-year-old woman in her own home and injuring three others, the regional military administration said on Friday evening.
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Pope in Hungary: Pope Francis visited Ukrainian refugees in Budapest on Saturday, saying he was moved by their commitment to find “a different future, away from the horrors of war.” He later held what an official Vatican outlet called a “friendly” meeting with representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church – a diplomatically sensitive meeting given the church’s close 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.
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