An apparent drone strike started a fire at a fuel storage facility in Sevastopol, the main port in Moscow-annexed Crimea, on Saturday, the Moscow-installed governor there said. The strike came as Russia hurled missiles at cities across Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 26 civilians in the first large-scale air strikes in nearly two months. Follow FRANCE 24’s live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
10:40am: Russia’s Putin signs decree allowing deportation of annexed territories’ inhabitants without Russian passport
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree that gives people living in parts of Ukraine under Moscow’s control a path to Russian citizenship but means those who decline or who do not legalise their status face potential deportation. The decree extends to four Ukrainian regions which Russia has claimed as its own and partially controls: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Kyiv says it will retake all four areas and has accused Moscow of trying to browbeat its citizens into accepting Russian citizenship.
The new decree sets out ways that Ukrainian citizens or those holding passports issued by Russia-backed breakaway republics, and who live in the four regions, can start the process of becoming Russian citizens or legalise their status with the Russian authorities.
But it also says that anyone who does not take such action by July 1 of next year will be regarded as a foreign citizen, something that will leave them at risk of being deported from territory that Russia considers its own.
The decree also allows the authorities to deport people from the four regions if they are deemed a threat to Russia’s national security or take part in what the decree refers to as unauthorised protests.
9:50am: Huge fire starts at Crimea fuel depot after drone strike, pro-Moscow authorities says
A huge fire broke out on Saturday at a fuel depot in Sevastopol, the main port in Moscow-annexed Crimea, with the Moscow-installed governor saying it was the result of a drone attack. The fire was still burning but it had been contained and no one was injured, Mikhail Razvozhaev said.
Sevastopol is home to Russia‘s Black Sea Fleet and has been hit by a series of drone attacks since the Kremlin’s Ukraine offensive launched last year.
“A fuel reserve is on fire in the Kazachya Bay district” of the city, the Moscow-installed governor of the peninsula Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram in the early hours of Saturday. “According to preliminary information, it was caused by a drone strike.”
He did not say whether the drone he cited as causing the fire was Ukrainian. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country is seeking to reclaim the peninsula during Russia’s current full-scale invasion, and the city of Sevastopol has come under repeated air attacks since the start of the war.
Key developments from Monday, April 24
Russia attacked cities across Ukraine early on Friday, killing at least 26 people, according to local officials. The deadly new attacks included a strike on a residential block in the historic city of Uman in central Ukraine. The barrage of almost two dozen missiles ended a weeks-long pause following the repeated Russian strikes that had aimed to paralyse Ukraine’s energy grid during the winter months.
Ukraine said it downed 21 of 23 Russian missiles and two attack drones overnight.
The new strikes came as Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said his country’s preparations to push back against entrenched Russian positions were almost complete.
NATO allies and partners have provided Ukraine with 1,550 armoured vehicles and 230 tanks to form units and help it retake territory from Russian forces, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
(C) France M?dias Monde graphic studio
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)