Explosions Reported Across Crimea

Explosions took place in Crimea overnight from drone attacks launched by Kyiv, it has been reported.

People in the town of Balaklava reported two explosions, one near the Balaklava Thermal Power Plant in which large-caliber weapons were heard, suggesting a drone attack, according to the local Crimean Wind Telegram channel.

The second explosion was heard nearer the coastline, close to the port of Sevastopol, with the channel reporting that residents' windows had been blown out.

Kyiv has carried out successful attacks against Russian targets in the occupied peninsula which it has vowed to recapture from Moscow. Strikes against the Russian Black Sea Fleet based in Sevastopol have forced Moscow to relocate many vessels to Novorossiysk, in Russia's Krasnodar region.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian installed leader in Sevastopol said that Saturday morning's blasts heard by residents were in fact Russian forces destroying an "unmanned boat."

Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry said that its air defenses had successfully intercepted Ukrainian drone attacks over Crimea, neighboring Krasnador as well as the Russian regions of Bryansk, Belgorod, Astrakhan and Tula.

Also overnight, Russian forces resumed attacks on six border areas and settlements of Sumy Oblast, in northeastern Ukraine, with artillery fire, drones and mortar shelling according to the local military administration, although no casualties or damages to civilian infrastructure were reported.

The town of Krasnopillia, which is less than 10 miles from the border with Russia, faced 20 explosions, the Kyiv Independent reported.

Newsweek has contacted the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries for comment.

It comes a day after Ukraine's military intelligence said that it carried out a naval strike in which it destroyed a Project 498 "Saturn" raiding tugboat, releasing video of the strike.

Also on Thursday, Russian drones and missiles struck two oil depots in the Kyiv region, according to Serhii Kuyun, head of A95, a Kyiv-based consulting group. "Minus two oil depots. Millions of dollars in the air," Kuyun wrote on Facebook, next to an image of flames at the facility in a post that did not reveal its location.

It comes as U.S. President Joe Biden announced a $225 million aid package for Ukraine during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Paris on Friday.

The aid will help repair damaged electricity infrastructure and also includes HAWK medium-range air defense systems, 155 mm howitzers, 81 mm mortars, artillery shells and HIMARS ammunition.

Ukraine has faced ammunition and weapons shortages in recent months and is awaiting the delivery of most of the bumper assistance package passed by U.S. Congress in April.

On Friday, Putin claimed Russia had increased ammunition production by more than 20 times, and there is "no need" to use nuclear weapons to win in Ukraine.

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