Ukraine used homemade long-range weapons to hit a Russian airbase in Crimea earlier this week, destroying nine Russian warplanes, killing one person and wounding 14. This was the first known major attack on a Russian military site in Crimea and a significant development in the war as Ukraine was thought to not be equipped to threaten targets on the peninsula.
Russian officials denied any aircraft were damaged in Tuesday’s blast – or that any attack took place.
A Ukrainian official told The New York Times Kyiv was behind the blasts, saying that a “device exclusively of Ukrainian manufacture was used.”
Crimea holds huge strategic and symbolic significance for both Ukraine and Russia — further emphasized by how both danced around what actually happened. The Kremlin’s demand that Ukraine recognize Crimea as part of Russia has been one of its key conditions for ending the hostilities, but Ukraine has vowed to drive the Russians from the peninsula and all other occupied territories.
Hours after the blast, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised again to do just that.
“This Russian war against Ukraine and against all of free Europe began with Crimea and must end with Crimea — its liberation,” he said in his nightly address.
The base on the Black Sea peninsula is over 100 miles from the nearest Ukrainian military position, out of range of the missiles supplied to Ukraine by the U.S.
Still, how Ukraine managed to hit Novofedorivka’s Saky (Saki) Airbase is a bit of a mystery as the location is outside the range of all known operational Ukrainian artillery and missile systems, per 1945.
The device could be Ukraine’s Grim-2 missile, which has an operational range of at least 155 miles, according to 1945, but there is very little information on its mass production.
President Vladimir Putin has long insisted Crimea is Russian and warned that any attempts to take it back would trigger massive retaliation. Moscow’s apparent swallowing of the strike showed Putin’s weakness, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.
“He’s expected to protect Crimea as Russia proper,” said Zhdanov. “Now he’s afraid to recognize that it was done by the Ukrainian armed forces.”
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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