Moments ago, according to local press, the simmering east Ukraine conflict just escalated substantially following what are reports of a massive explosion off the Ukraine coast near heavily contested Mariupol - the key city which stands in Russia's way to make a land bridge from Russian territory to the recently "Russianized" Crimea.
As Interpretermag reports [5], citing Mariupol news site 0629.com.ua, [6]there has been a powerful explosion in the Azov sea, south of the city.
Residents of the Primorsky and Zhovtnevy districts told the site that the explosion occurred at around 12:00 (10:00 GMT), shaking windows in their homes.
Dmitry Gorbunov, a press officer for the ATO headquarters in Mariupol, told 0629 that the blast had occurred beyond the 20-mile zone off the Ukrainian coast, in territory controlled by the Russian Federation.
There are no reported casualties amongst the Ukrainian navy or border guards. An investigation is under way.
Indicatively the explosion took place in the area highlighed, appropriately enough, by the mushroom cloud.
[7]
And this is what according to local media outlets [8]the explosion looked like.
[9]
And then there is this, which one should however take with a mine of salt:
@DmitryTymchuk [10] says Russian medium range surface-air missile system located outside Mariupol https://t.co/ciKRj3jBpL [11] pic.twitter.com/NEcuriM9qk [12]
— Ryskeldi Satke (@RyskeldiSatke) November 11, 2014 [13]
More if we get it, although considering the news does originate from the Ukraine, we would not be surprised if this is nothing but the latest creative use of photoshop.
