Kyiv drone hits Crimea ammo depot, as Russian strikes kill 8

A Ukrainian drone hit an ammunition depot in central Crimea on Saturday, sparking an explosion, less than a week after a predawn strike on a key bridge linking the peninsula to Russia prompted Moscow to exit a landmark grain export deal and pound Ukraine's seaports with drones and missiles.

Sergey Aksyonov, the Kremlin-appointed head of the territory that Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, said in a Telegram post that there were no immediate reports of casualties but that authorities were evacuating civilians within a five-kilometer of the blast site.

The Ukrainian military appeared to confirm it had launched the drone strike, claiming through its press service that it had destroyed an oil depot and Russian arms warehouses in the Krasnohvardiiske area, although without specifying what weapons were used.

The explosion in Krasnohvardiiske came less than a week after a Ukrainian strike on Monday on the crucial Kerch bridge linking Crimea with Russia, which killed two people and left a section of the roadway hanging perilously.