Explosions in Crimea: Ukraine doesn't want to know anything - but a lot speaks in their favor
Created: 08/11/2022, 14:56
By: Nail Akkoyun
Officially, Ukraine does not want to have anything to do with the explosions in Crimea, but the reality seems different - and would have serious consequences for Russia.
Crimea - Two days after the devastating explosions in Crimea that left several Russian soldiers injured and one person dead, it is still unclear what triggered the detonations.
While Russia denies that the peninsula it annexed in 2014 was attacked by Ukraine, conflicting claims abound on the Ukrainian side.
While Kyiv officially does not want to hear anything about an attack either, observers are assuming a Ukrainian military strike.
The US think tank Institute for the Study of the War said Moscow did not want to admit the attack for image reasons.
In addition, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak wrote on Twitter: "This is just the beginning."
The German military expert Gustav Gressel also considers an accident unlikely, as he explained in an interview with
T-online.de
.
The affected military base in Crimea is "relatively large and recently expanded," said Gressel.
"Someone must have detonated all three facilities in a coordinated attack."
Smoke billows from an explosion on Saky Beach.
Several explosions took place on Tuesday (9 August) on the Crimea peninsula in the Black Sea, which was annexed by Russia.
© Uncredited/dpa/AP
Explosions in Crimea: "Do they have to bomb Moscow first?"
If Ukraine is actually behind the explosions in Crimea, Russia will face a number of new problems: Positions that previously seemed inaccessible to the Ukrainian armed forces would suddenly become so.
This would also fit the testimony of Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who reported on a new weapon - a weapon that apparently can cause enormous damage.
In addition, Yuri Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, commented on the incident in Crimea: "After the explosion that we saw, it is clear that the Air Force contingent was hit," Ihnat said on Wednesday (August 10).
If planes were destroyed in the process, "this would be a real triumph".
Meanwhile, satellite images released by a US company have confirmed that Russian fighter jets have been destroyed.
Both
The New York Times newspaper
and the US Institute for War Studies (ISW) reported Thursday (11 August) that at least eight planes had been burned down.
Meanwhile, Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov raged on Telegram: "Where do we draw the red line?
Do they have to bomb Moscow first?”.
Solovyov, meanwhile, likes to host propagandists of all stripes on his own television show – and only in May did he himself threaten Britain with a Russian invasion.
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Ukraine War: Ukrainian attack on Crimea would be a major blow to Russia
Whether Ukraine has succeeded in launching a symbolic attack on Crimea cannot be said with certainty for the time being – however, the number, force and some statements on the Ukrainian side clearly speak in favor of an attack.
It would be the first military attack on the Black Sea peninsula since its annexation in 2014.
Symbolically, this would be a similarly heavy blow to Vladimir Putin as the sinking of the guided missile cruiser “Moskva” in mid-April.
In this case, too, Russia, despite many indications, denied a shooting down by Ukrainian troops.
(nak with dpa)