Crimea vortex: Russian anti-aircraft defense allegedly shoots down drones
Created: 2022-08-20 05:04
By: Marius Epp, Stephanie Munk, Fabian Müller
In the Ukraine war, Russia is apparently becoming increasingly nervous due to attacks on Crimea.
An ammunition dump is on fire in Russia.
The news ticker.
Kremlin
on
NPP Zaporizhia
: Soldiers should prevent "Chernobyl scenario".
Ukraine
gives figures on
Russian losses
: According to Kiev, more than 44,000 Russian soldiers have died since the beginning of the war.
Erdogan
assumes the end of the
war
"at the negotiating table" in talks with Selenskyj and Guterres.
This
news ticker on military events in the
Ukraine war
is updated regularly.
Update from August 19, 9:40 p.m
.: Eddy around the Crimea.
The Russian air defense system allegedly shot down drones over the annexed peninsula on Friday evening.
Sevastopol, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and the seaside resort of Yevpatoria were named as places.
Initially unverified videos on social networks allegedly filmed in Yevpatoria showed tracers of anti-aircraft fire over the city.
"Crimea is under reliable protection," said Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Crimean leadership.
Similarly, the night before, alleged drones had been shot down over the city of Kerch and the Belbek airbase near Sevastopol.
Observers did not rule out that the Ukrainians wanted to test the Russian air defenses before possible attacks.
Last week there were devastating explosions at the Saki air base near Yevpatoria in western Crimea, destroying numerous Russian warplanes.
Kremlin on NPP Zaporizhia: Soldiers should prevent "Chernobyl scenario".
Update from August 19, 4:50 p.m .:
The Russian military leadership has again defended its mission on the site of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
The presence of Russian troops is a guarantee that a "Chernobyl scenario" will not occur.
This was confirmed by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Friday.
A little later, Vladimir Putin also made surprisingly diplomatic statements.
Meanwhile, the secretary of the Russian National Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, again accused Kyiv of attacking the nuclear power plant, according to the Interfax agency on Friday.
The Ukrainian military is firing at the nuclear power plant with weapons supplied by the United States, Patrushev said.
“If there is a catastrophe, the consequences will be felt in all corners of the world.
The responsibility for this will fall on Washington, London and their cronies," he told a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Attack claims cannot be independently verified.
Ukraine-News: Russian government expects provocations at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
Update from August 19, 11:15 a.m .:
The Russian government has accused Ukraine of wanting to stage provocations at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
This is reported by the "Institute for the Study of War" (ISW) in its daily update.
The head of Russia's defense forces against nuclear, biological and chemical attacks, Igor Kirillov, made the relevant statements at a meeting on Thursday.
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During the visit of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Kirillov accused the Ukrainian armed forces of wanting to stage provocations at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, for which Kyiv then wanted to blame Russia.
This should increase the pressure on the UN and the West to set up a restricted zone around the reactors.
However, the ISW considers it possible that Moscow itself could carry out provocations at the nuclear power plant and then blame Ukraine.
According to information from the US television broadcaster NBC, Russia is said to have informed the workers at the nuclear power plant on Thursday that they would not be going to work on Friday.
Just a few days ago, Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other for attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Ukraine gives figures on Russian losses - further attacks on Kharkiv
Update from August 19, 9:57 a.m .:
According to their own statements, the Ukrainian armed forces killed 400 Russian soldiers within 24 hours.
This was announced by the Ukrainian general staff on Friday.
A total of 44,700 Russian soldiers are said to have died since the invasion of Ukraine began.
However, the information cannot currently be independently verified.
The British Ministry of Defense reports that the Russian military is continuing its attacks on the city of Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine.
Twelve civilians are said to have died in an artillery strike on Wednesday.
The big city is only about 15 kilometers from the front line.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, Moscow is trying to tie down part of the Ukrainian armed forces in the north-east with the attacks.
Ukraine would then lack this on other fronts.
The front lines near Kharkiv have barely changed since May.
Firefighters clear debris from a building destroyed in a rocket attack in Kharkiv.
© Andrii Marienko/dpa
Ukraine-News: Russia reports drone down over Crimea
Update from August 19, 7:33 a.m .:
The objects shot down on the Crimean peninsula were said to be drones.
This is according to official information.
"There is no damage, no one is injured," the governor of the naval city, Mikhail Razvozhayev, wrote on Telegram.
One of the UAVs was apparently shot down over the Belbek military airfield near Sevastopol, and a second in the city of Kerch, from where a long bridge connects Crimea to mainland Russia.
According to the authorities, a Russian ammunition depot in the Belgorod area near the Ukrainian border had gone up in flames (
see update from June 18, 8:43 p.m.
).
War in Ukraine: Russian anti-aircraft guns shoot at flying objects over Kerch
Update from August 18, 10:10 p.m .:
The Russian air defense fired on unnamed objects on Thursday evening over the city of Kerch in Crimea.
This was announced by an advisor to the leadership of the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 after initial assessments.
"There is no danger to the city and the bridge," adviser Oleg Kryuchkov wrote on Telegram.
Kerch residents reported on social networks that they heard two explosions.
The 18-kilometer bridge between Crimea and the Russian mainland begins in the port city.
Ukraine sees the structure, which opened in 2018, as a legitimate military target.
Russia has threatened massive retaliation if the rail and road bridge is attacked.
Traffic on the bridge is running normally, according to the responsible road administration agency Tass.
Russian ammunition dump on Ukraine border caught fire
Update from August 18, 8:43 p.m .:
A Russian ammunition depot in the Belgorod area close to the border with Ukraine went up in flames on Thursday, according to local authorities.
No one was injured, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
According to the information, the depot was near the village of Timonowo, about 4.5 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
The residents of the villages of Timonowo and Soloti were brought to safety.
"The cause of the fire is being sought," wrote Gladkow.
A thick column of black smoke was seen again on Thursday over the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Unverified videos of it could be seen on the internet.
According to the Ria Novosti agency, Crimea's civil protection agency said that only an area of dry grass burned near Mezhvodnoye in the west.
Heavy explosions have occurred several times in Russian military installations on the peninsula in recent days.
The cause was unclear but suggested Ukrainian attacks.
Erdogan assumes the end of the war "at the negotiating table" - UN warns of "suicide" due to nuclear attacks
Update from August 18, 7:50 p.m .:
As a threatening gesture against the West, Russia says it has moved fighter jets with the new Kinschal (Dagger) hypersonic missiles to its Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.
Three MiG-31 interceptors with the air-to-surface missiles were stationed at the Chkalovsk air base as an "additional measure for strategic deterrence".
According to the Interfax agency, the Russian Defense Ministry in Moscow announced this on Thursday.
Kaliningrad lies between the EU countries Poland and Lithuania around 500 kilometers from Berlin, but more than 1000 kilometers from Moscow.
According to Russian data, the cruise missiles Kinzhal fly up to ten times faster than sound, are still steerable and have a range of 2,000 kilometers.
They can be conventionally or nuclear equipped.
It is one of several cutting-edge weapons systems that President Vladimir Putin is particularly proud of.
In March, Russia said it fired a Kinzhal missile at a military target in western Ukraine.
Update from August 18, 7:11 p.m .:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to rely on a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.
“I continue to believe that the war will eventually end at the negotiating table.
In fact, Mr. Zelenskyj and Mr. Guterres also see it that way," Erdogan said, according to the Turkish presidential palace on Thursday in Lviv in western Ukraine.
Erdogan, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj met there for talks.
According to Erdogan, the results of the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin will be evaluated.
Ukraine nuclear plant Zaporizhia: UN warns of "suicide" - Russia speaks of "catastrophic consequences"
Update from August 18, 6:28 p.m .:
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has again called for the withdrawal of all troops around the endangered Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhia.
"The area must be demilitarized," Guterres said Thursday after a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv.
The facility should not be used for military operations, Guterres said.
"Instead, an agreement is urgently needed to restore Zaporizhia as a purely civilian infrastructure and to ensure the security of the area." Any possible damage to the nuclear power plant is "suicide".
Ukraine nuclear power plant Zaporizhia: Russia warns of "catastrophic consequences" - with Chernobyl comparison
Update from August 18, 12:52 p.m .:
The Russian occupiers of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant accuse Ukraine of dangerous attacks.
There is a risk that the shelling will damage the cooling system of the reactors and the storage facilities for nuclear waste, said the region's occupation chief, Yevgeny Balitsky, on Russian state television.
"The cooling system guarantees the reliable operation of the nuclear power plant," he said, warning of a catastrophe like that in 1986 at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Chernobyl.
The reactor facilities could be destroyed, which would allow radioactive substances to enter the atmosphere and spread hundreds of kilometers, said the head of Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Forces, Igor Kirillov.
Using a graphic, he warned of the "catastrophic consequences" that were even worse than the gas crisis in Europe.
Under fire in the Ukraine war: a Russian soldier guards the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia.
© Konstantin Mihalchevskiy/imago
The Russian military claims to only secure the nuclear power plant and not to have stationed any heavy weapons there.
According to information from Moscow, the Russian air defense repeatedly intercepts attacks on the nuclear power plant.
So far, no increased radioactivity is said to have been measured.
The information was not officially verified.
Ukraine war: dead and injured after Russian attacks in Kharkiv - including children
Update from August 18, 12:40 p.m .:
According to Ukrainian information, four people were killed in Russian attacks on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and nearby Krasnograd.
According to regional governor Oleg Synegubov, 20 other people were injured in the artillery shelling early Thursday morning (18 August), including children.
Several residential buildings were badly damaged.
The attack came just hours before UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were expected for talks in western Ukraine.
Crimean explosions: Ukraine now targets Putin's prestige project and threatens Russia
Kyiv - Soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula in violation of international law in 2014, he had a bridge built from Russian territory to the peninsula.
In 2018, Putin personally inaugurated the bridge across the Kerch Strait: the Russian president was the first to drive across it in a truck at the head of a convoy of vehicles.
The structure is strategically and symbolically extremely important for Russia, not least the most important road and rail link between mainland Russia and Crimea.
After the Crimean bridge to Russia was officially opened in 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) had Transport Minister Yevgeny Ditrikh explain the project to him.
© Aleksey Nikolskyi/Kremlin Pool/Imago
Several explosions in Crimea - now Ukraine is apparently targeting a bridge
But Ukraine does not want to cede the peninsula, which originally belongs to its territory, to Russia without a fight: in the past few days there have been several explosions in Crimea, the origin of which has not been clarified, but can probably be traced back to Ukrainian attacks.
Russia, which uses the peninsula as a logistical base for the Ukraine war, reacted with uncertainty and started a partial withdrawal of its warplanes.
In addition, Putin apparently had the fleet commander in Crimea recalled: As the London Institute for the Study of War reports, Admiral Igor Osipov was replaced by his previous deputy Viktor Sokolov.
The 19-kilometer bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula opened in 2018.
© Sergei Malgavko/TASS/Imago
Ukraine calls on Russia to 'dismantle' bridge - 'voluntarily or not'
Ukraine has now called for the bridge from Russia to Crimea to be “dismantled”, indirectly threatening a military attack.
The bridge is an "illegal object" and must be dismantled - "no matter how: voluntarily or not," said Advisor to the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podoliak, on Wednesday (August 17) in the messenger service Telegram.
The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope
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Explosions in Crimea: Russia speaks of "sabotage"
An ammunition depot at a military base in the north of the peninsula exploded on Tuesday (August 16).
Moscow spoke of an "act of sabotage", but without naming those directly responsible.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, praised a "masterpiece of the Ukrainian armed forces".
In addition to the ammunition depot, a high-voltage power line, a power plant, a railway line and several houses were also damaged.
Smoke billows from an explosion on Saky Beach.
Ammunition exploded at a Russian airbase on Russia's annexed Crimea peninsula in the Black Sea.
© Uncredited/dpa
A week earlier, explosions had already occurred at the Russian military airfield at Saki in western Crimea, killing one and injuring several.
Tourists fled from the resort popular with Russians, there were long traffic jams over the Kerch bridge.
The detonations also gave rise to speculation about a new weapon that Ukraine is said to have in its possession.
(smu with material from AFP)
