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5 mins ago
Belarus says flashes at air base near Ukraine border due to accidental fire
By Victoria Butenko
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
(Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/AP)
An overnight fire at a Belarusian airbase near the Ukrainian border was caused by a piece of equipment that caught fire, the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
The statement was issued in response to reports of flashes and detonations at the Zyabrovka air base, near the southeastern city of Gomel.
"There are no casualties. The staff took the respective measures in time," the statement said.
CNN cannot verify the Belarusian account.
A little background:
Belarus is one of Russia's closest allies and has played a key role in its invasion of Ukraine.
In July, President Alexander Lukashenko accused Ukraine of dragging his country into the war.
9 mins ago
Seven Russian warplanes were destroyed by huge explosions that rocked the Crimean airbase
By Brad Lendon, Paul P. Murphy
(Credit: Planet Labs)
At least seven Russian warplanes were destroyed after explosions rocked annexation of Crimea on Tuesday, new satellite images show, in what CNN's investigation found could be Moscow's biggest loss of military aircraft in a single day. since World War II.
The destroyed warplanes appear to be Su-24 bombers and Su-30 multirole fighters, said Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and a former Australian Air Force pilot, who examined Planet Lab satellite photos showing the airbase. of Saki before and after the explosions.
Two other warplanes appear to have been damaged, Layton said.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian military added nine aircraft to the count of Russian military hardware it says has been destroyed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said it could not determine the cause of the explosions at the airbase, which is 225 kilometers (140 miles) behind the Russian front line, according to the Institute for the Study of War think tank.
Russia says bombing in Crimea 'was a mistake'
The Russian Defense Ministry said the explosions were caused by aircraft munitions, but did not say how it was detonated.
A video on social media, verified and geolocated by CNN as coming from the air base, shows smoke rising from the base before being rocked by three large, fiery explosions that send black mushroom clouds skyward.
Two of the explosions occur almost simultaneously and a third occurs shortly after.
Satellite photos also show that the explosions burned a strip of vegetation around part of the airbase.
11 mins ago
Russian shelling kills two people in central Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region
By Nicola Careem, Josh Pennington
A man surveys the damage after the Dnipropetrovsk region suffered another night of shelling on Thursday, August 11.
(Photo: Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Valentin Reznichenko)
At least two people were killed and nine others injured, including a 13-year-old girl, after Russian forces shelled the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk overnight, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentin Reznichenko said on Telegram that more than 100 Russian missiles hit four districts in the region — Nikopol, Chervonohrihorivska, Kryvorizka and Synelniky — damaging dozens of buildings and leaving thousands of residents without power.
Rescue teams were searching the rubble for survivors, he said.
Dnipro, the largest city in the region, was also the target of a rocket attack.
The extent of the damage is not yet known.
13 mins ago
Airstrikes hit Russian targets in the south, Ukrainian military says
By Tim Lister
The Ukrainian military said it carried out six air strikes against Russian targets in southern Ukraine on Wednesday.
Russian forces were hit in the Beryslav district of Kherson, and ammunition depots were destroyed in Bashtanka and Barvinka, according to the authorities.
Russian command posts were also destroyed, one of them located in the town of Chervonyi Maisk, along the Dnipro River, they added.
CNN was unable to verify the military's claims, which come as Ukrainian forces intensify their operations in the south of the country.
war in ukraine