Four servicemen were injured when two artillery shells exploded on board a Ukrainian medium amphibious assault ship during military drills off the Crimean Peninsula, the UNIAN news agency reported on Saturday.
The explosions took place late on Friday at Crimean training ground Opuk, where the Vzaimodeistviye-2010 (Cooperation-2010) military exercises are under way, according to a source in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
The injured servicemen have been admitted to hospital in a grave condition, the source said.
There have been no official comments on the incident from Ukraine's defense authorities. The defense minister, Mykhailo Yezhel, was reportedly supervising the drills on Friday.
The country's Prosecutor General's office has confirmed that the blasts took place on board the Kirovograd assault ship. The head of the Military Prosecutor's Office, Yuri Viytev, told UNIAN the incident was being investigated, but said he was not informed about the details.
In 2008, during military drills off the Crimean peninsula, a missile exploded just seconds after it was launched from a Buk-M1 (SA-11 Gadfly) missile system. No one was killed in the incident.
KIEV, September 18 (RIA Novosti)
