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Plume of smoke following Ukrainian attack on Crimea on August 9 (stock image)
Photo: IMAGO/Stringer / IMAGO/ITAR-TASS
According to Russian military information, anti-aircraft defenses became active in the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops on Saturday evening.
There were reports of the use of air defense from both Simferopol in Crimea and Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine, according to the Russian state agency Tass.
The population was asked to remain calm.
According to the dpa news agency, local residents reported numerous detonations in the sky on social media.
An adviser to the Crimean administration published a short video on Telegram showing an explosion in the night sky.
"Crimea is under protection, the air defense is working," wrote Oleg Kryuchkov.
However, no information was given about the nature of the possible attack or its effects.
According to Russian information, Ukrainian troops are said to have also attacked the occupied city of Melitopol in south-eastern Ukraine.
There are said to have been several victims there.
As the representative of the occupation administration, Vladimir Rogov, told the Russian state agency TASS, among other things, a restaurant was hit in the attack.
"As a result of the rocket attack from a Himar system, there were dead and wounded among peaceful people in the Jägereinkehr restaurant," Rogov was quoted as saying.
Ukraine had recently used reconnaissance and combat drones over the Russian-occupied areas.
Kiev has not yet officially commented on the possible use of Ukrainian combat drones against military airports in Russia, in which combat aircraft were damaged.
"The enemy has changed their tactics"
Meanwhile, Russian and Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine are apparently continuing to engage in heavy fighting.
"Donbass is the main front in the struggle for Ukraine's independence," Serhiy Cherevatyy, spokesman for Army Group East of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said on television on Saturday.
The focus of the fighting was therefore on the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.
"The enemy has changed tactics," said Cherevaty.
Instead of attacks by larger units, there were now attacks by smaller groups, above all by the mercenary troop »Wagner«, supported by barrel and rocket artillery.
"We analyze this tactic and find an antidote for every military poison."
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The Russian military had previously reported on its offensive in the region.
"In the Donetsk area, the Russian units continued their attacks and drove the enemy out of their fortified positions," army spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed in Moscow on Saturday.
Positions were also seized in the north between the small towns of Kreminna and Lyman.
The information could not be verified independently.
Reports have been circulating for weeks that the Ukrainian army is on the defensive in the Donetsk region, trying to hold its defense lines in front of the industrial city of Donetsk and east of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk conurbation.
slue/dpa