AT least seven people have died after a blaze swept through a makeshift barracks housing construction workers in occupied Crimea.
The horror fire broke out shortly after 2am on the outskirts of the city of Sevastopol – the HQ of Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea Fleet.
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Seven workers died and two others were rushed to hospital, while another five have been reported missing.
It comes amid a wave of suspected “sabotage” blasts – including a huge explosion on Crimea’s Kerch Bridge linking Vlad’s mainland and the occupied peninsula.
At the time of the fire on Thursday morning, 185 people were inside the dormitory, the RIA news agency reported.
Footage showed the raging inferno ripping through the two-storey barracks housing construction workers building a bridge commissioned by Putin.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-appointed governor, said the Tavrida highway will link the Crimean cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol.
Russia’s Investigative Committee – which probes major crimes – said it had launched an investigation into the cause of the blaze.
Law enforcement agencies claimed the cause was an electrical appliance short-circuiting.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 – and Kyiv has said it plans to retake it by force.
A series explosions and fires have ripped through key facilities in Russia linked to the Ukraine war in recent months.
Recent infernos have hit strategic oil and gas facilities including storage depots, military facilities and shopping malls in many Russian regions, including Moscow.
Last month, footage showed the moment a gas pipeline blast in the Russian-occupied region of Luhansk sparked a blaze at an oil base.
The Ukrainian pipeline is currently being operated by Russians and the explosion on January 7 resulted in gas being cut off to more than 13,000 homes.
Footage showed the inferno sweeping through the facility, sending black smoke billowing into the sky.
It’s not clear who was behind the blast – but the Russian Ministry of State Security has opened a criminal case into “sabotage due to the explosion of a gas pipeline”.
A fire also broke out in Russia’s foreign ministry in Moscow in January.
The blaze led to the evacuation of 25 people in a section of the building complex housing veteran foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s press service.
Reports said this fire started in a “technical room” two floors underground.
There were early claims of a short circuit.
In December, a blaze broke out on Putin’s only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, in Arctic port Murmansk while the vessel was under repairs from an earlier major fire.
And in the same month, a Siberian oil pipeline exploded in an apocalyptic fireball amid suspicions key Russian facilities are being targeted in sabotage attacks.
The huge blast hit the major pipeline 560 miles from the Ukrainian border in Chuvashia killing three workers.
The cause of the inferno was unclear, but shocking footage showed flames shooting into the sky from the giant blaze.
In October, Putin was blamed for an explosion that damaged the Nord Stream pipeline, cutting gas supplies in retaliation over sanctions imposed over his invasion of Ukraine.
Imogen Braddick
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