As of: February 5, 2024, 5:24 a.m
By: Patrick Mayer
Comments
Press
Split
After the spectacular sinking of a Russian warship off Crimea, the Ukrainians report a major air strike on the peninsula.
Sevastopol – Can Moscow autocrat Vladimir Putin no longer defend Crimea, which he had occupied in violation of international law in 2014, in the Ukraine war?
Crimean peninsula: Ukrainians report heavy air attack against Russian squadron
On the night of Thursday (February 1), the Ukrainian armed forces said they sank the Russian corvette “Ivanovets” in the Black Sea using surface drones.
In the evening of the same day, media from Kiev, Ukrainian military bloggers and the much-quoted advisor to the Interior Ministry, Anton Gerashchenko, reported a suspected heavy air strike against the Russian aviation squadron at the Belbek military airfield on the peninsula.
At the same time, a video was circulating on
The information cannot be independently verified.
With Sukhoi Su-24M: Ukrainian Air Force probably bombs Crimean airfield
The armed forces-affiliated
Kyiv Post
reported on Thursday evening what it called “perhaps the most ambitious and complex Ukrainian airstrike of the war so far.”
Because: Belbek is the most developed and supposedly best defended Russian air base in the Black Sea region, the online newspaper wrote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signs a Storm Shadow cruise missile on a Ukrainian fighter jet.
© imago/archive image
At least three Ukrainian Sukhoi Su-24M fighter bombers had already flown the main attack on Wednesday (January 31) and fired at least six British Storm Shadows or French Scalp cruise missiles (technically identical) at targets around the Belbek air base, it said.
My news
Ukraine speaks of “flying garbage”: Australia wanted to supply Kiev with F/A-18 fighter jets
Russia recognizes plan behind NATO maneuvers: diplomat attacks Germany
“Our payment card is harder”: Söder explains how Bavaria wants to eliminate asylum “incentives” read
“Comprehensive mobilization”: Putin wants “99 percent of the population” to fight against “enemies”.
Without Americans: Germany is working on Ukraine's liberation strike
State Secretary on German money for cycle paths in Peru: “We don’t just think up these projects” read
Russian losses in Crimea: Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets allegedly destroyed
Meanwhile, different reports about alleged Russian losses after the attack were making the rounds.
Gerashchenko reported on a communications building that was allegedly destroyed.
The well-known Ukrainian military blogger Igor Sushko, however, reported that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets and a Su-30 multi-role fighter jet were destroyed on the airfield.
Twelve Russian soldiers were also killed.
This information cannot be independently verified either.
However, as the European defense company MBDA recently announced, the Ukrainian air force can now mount the Storm Shadow cruise missiles on their Su-24M fighter jets and fire them from them.
This significantly increases Ukraine's flexibility in using cruise missiles.
Previously, the cruise missiles could only be attached to MiG-29 fighter jets.
Crimean Peninsula: Weaknesses in Russian air defense revealed?
As the
Kyiv Post
also reports, the Ukrainians are using the “Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD),” usually referred to in military language as the ADM-160.
Simplified: decoy drones, which themselves look like small cruise missiles, are fired at the same time as the Storm Shadows or Scalp-EG and are intended to attract the Russian air defense's air-to-ground guided missiles.
This probably could not prevent the attack on Belbek.
(pm)