New Delhi: Managing to evade the air defence shield of S-400 systems, Ukraine has struck the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet with missiles in Crimea’s Sevastopol and also hit the peninsula with a cyberattack, the city’s Russia-installed officials said Friday.
Ukraine has reportedly confirmed the attack, but forwarded few details.
Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Sevastopol, the biggest city in the Crimean Peninsula, is a port city and is the main base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It is strategic in nature as the vessels come here for repair and overhaul.
Ukraine’s attack comes only a day after it claimed that a barrage of Russian missiles had struck half a dozen of its cities, killing at least two people, leaving 20 injured, and damaging the electricity infrastructure in several regions.
Going by the past reports, it is believed that the building was being guarded by the S400 Triumf air defence systems.
Meanwhile, media reports quoted Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev as saying in a post on the Telegram messaging app, “Work continues to extinguish the fire at the fleet headquarters…According to preliminary information, the civilian infrastructure around the fleet headquarters was not damaged. The people who were on the street at the time of the impact were also not injured.”
Media reports quoted his adviser, Oleg Kryuchkov, as saying that the peninsula was also hit by an “unprecedented cyberattack” on its internet providers.
According to media reports, the Commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, Mikola Oleshuk, posted a message on Telegram, thanking his pilots for also taking a dig at Russia for its claims of having downed most of the missiles. “Air alarms are still sounding in Sevastopol, I thank the pilots of the Air Force once again,” he said. He added that Sevastopol was a city of the naval forces of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Meanwhile, media reports quoted Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, as saying, “The group’s commander (Russian commander), Colonel-General (Aleksandr) Romanchuk, is among the wounded and in a serious condition. The chief of staff, Lieutenant General (Oleg) Tsekov, is unconscious.” He added that the number of injured servicemen who are not staff members is still being established and that “these are soldiers on duty, security guards, and so on – they are not included in the list that I’ve told you.”
Ukraine hits back
On 13 September, Ukraine reportedly attacked a strategic shipyard in Crimea, wounding 24 people and damaging two ships undergoing repairs, causing a heavy fire at the facility. This incident occurred as a hit back against Russia’s drone launches in southern Ukraine’s Odesa region.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said at the time that Ukraine launched 10 cruise missiles at the shipyard and three unmanned sea drones at Russian ships in the Black Sea.
In a separate attack a day later, Kyiv claimed to have attacked two Russian patrol ships operating in the Black Sea and destroyed a sophisticated “Triumf” surface-to-air missile defence system in Crimea.
In fact, even in August, Kyiv had claimed that Ukrainian forces had destroyed an S-400 system in Crimea. “The explosion completely destroyed the system, its missiles and personnel,” Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency was quoted by media as saying then.
Apart from these two attacks on S-400 air defence systems, Kyiv claims to have destroyed at least two battalions of these weapons systems in the past.
Since February last year, NATO countries have been helping Ukraine with weaponry. According to the UN, shoulder-fired man-portable air defence systems, anti-ship missiles, armoured personnel carriers, long-range cruise missiles and cluster munitions have been sent into Ukraine to help it stand up to Russia’s invasion.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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