Ukraine war: Crimea airbase badly damaged, satellite images show

Satellite images appear to show extensive damage and several destroyed Russian warplanes at a Crimea airbase following explosions earlier this week.

The Saky base in the west of Russian-ruled Crimea was rocked by a string of blasts on Tuesday, killing one person.

Ukraine has not claimed responsibility - but this new evidence suggests the possibility of a targeted attack.

The images, from the US-based Planet Labs, show large areas of scorched earth left from fires that erupted.

The base's main runways seem to be intact, but at least eight aircraft appear to be damaged and destroyed, with several craters clearly visible.

Most of them are in a specific area of the base where a large number of planes were parked out in the open - away from the cover of hangars.

The before and after images from Planet Labs, which runs a specialised platform monitoring hundreds of satellite feeds over Ukraine, are the first independent confirmation that the base may have been damaged. Until now, details about the extent of the explosions' impact have been scarce.

But it is still not clear how the base was damaged or by what.

Russia insists that the explosions were caused by ammunition exploding in a store because of fire safety rules being flouted.

Ukraine has rejected that explanation - although has stopped short of claiming responsibility. Its air force said a dozen Russian warplanes were destroyed although Russia denied that any aircraft had been damaged. These new images suggest that is not true.

The UK's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has rejected Russia's explanation that the blast was caused by poor fire safety.

"We've pretty much dismissed most of the Russian excuses - everything from a cigarette butt, I think was one of them, that might have set off two simultaneous large explosions," he told the BBC.

He said it was still early days in trying to establish the facts - but that the airbase was "absolutely a legitimate target" as it had been used to bomb targets in Ukraine.

Any attack by Ukraine inside Crimea would be seen as an escalation of the war. Russia sounded a warning last month when ex-President Dmitry Medvedev threatened that "Judgement Day will instantly await" if Ukraine targeted Crimea.

Crimea is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine - but the Black Sea peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014. Many Ukrainians see this as the start of their war with Russia.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, after the territory - which has a Russian-speaking majority - voted to join Russia in a referendum that the global community deem illegal.

The vote was hastily organised after unmarked Russian troops took control of several strategic sites around the peninsula.

Russia's annexation came after Ukraine's Russian-backed president was ousted following months of pro-European protests.

On 24 February this year - eight years after the Crimea annexation - Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, using Crimea as a springboard to move Russian troops deeper inside Ukraine.