Russian forces on military exercises in Crimea in April 2021. File photo by Vadim Savitsky/Russian Defense Ministry/EPA-EFE
Aug. 4 (UPI) — A soldier in Russian-occupied Crimea allegedly killed four people and injured another four in a mass shooting on Tuesday.
Crimea region Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev said the gunman allegedly shot his fellow soldiers, killing one and wounding another, before opening fire on civilians in Khmelnytske village, near Sevastopol, killing a 64-year-old woman and two men aged 71 and 59. Three other people were also injured.
The condition of those injured was not immediately available.
“Emergency medical care is currently being provided to the injured, and doctors are doing everything possible to save them,” Razvozhayev said in a post on Telegram.
Neither the suspect nor his military unit were identified by authorities but Razvozhayev said that an investigation had been launched, with investigators and forensic experts on the scene.
Emergency services, investigators, and forensic experts are currently working at the scene. All circumstances and causes of the incident are being established.
He appealed for calm and for the public to refrain from sharing “unverified” speculation regarding the possible motives of the suspect.
Crimea is recognized by the international community as part of Ukraine despite being de facto Russian for more than a decade.
Kyiv insists on its return and has stepped up attacks on the peninsula in recent months, using drones to target military, energy, transport and infrastructure assets. In late June, authorities there declared a State of Emergency after a wave of drone strikes caused extensive damage, blackouts and fuel shortages.
A former autonomous republic, Russia illegally annexed the peninsula following a referendum in March 2014, a month after its forces occupied the territory in February 2014, a move that drew the condemnation of the United Nations General Assembly.
In a 100-11 vote, the assembly resolution of the territorial integrity of Ukraine said the poll was invalid, could not form the basis for any change to Crimea’s status and called on all countries, international organizations and U.N. agencies to refuse to recognize any alteration to either Crimea, or the rest of Ukraine.
Russia has concentrated considerable military force there, particularly since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including the Russian Navy’s Black Sea fleet, which is based out of Sevastopol.
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famed “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on August 28, 1963. The speech galvanized the nation’s civil rights movements and led to the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1968 Fair Housing Act. File photo by UPI | License Photo
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