Ukraine’s military intelligence service, HUR, claims to have hit a Russian missile defense system at Tarkhankutskyi, which forms the western part of the Crimean peninsula.
Ukraine claims that the attack on the S-400 missile system and radars at the facility is one of the most serious attacks we have seen so far since Ukraine launched its counter-offensive in June.
– The missile system has been completely destroyed, writes a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence service in a post on Telegram and continues:
– It is a painful blow against the occupying power’s air defense systems.
They have shared a video claiming to show the attack. See it here:
That these systems are affected also challenges Russia’s claim that their latest systems are on a par with the Western ones.
Bloody counteroffensive
This summer’s Ukrainian counter-offensive has been far tougher and bloodier for Ukraine than expected.
The Russian forces have had the winter to prepare the defense lines. The Ukrainian forces must pay dearly for every meter they recapture from the Russians on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s difficulties in breaking through the Russian defense lines are due, among other things, to Ukraine’s soldiers being deployed incorrectly, anonymous officials from the US and other Western countries say to New York Times.
The main objective of the counter-offensive is to cut the Russian supply lines by breaking the land bridge between Russia and the annexed Crimean peninsula. But the military leadership in Ukraine has distributed its forces roughly equally between the eastern and southern parts of the country.
According to the newspaper’s sources, this means that there are more soldiers near Bakhmut and other cities than in Melitopol and Berdjansk, which are strategically more important, writes the New York Times.
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The Battle for Crimea
The famous Crimean peninsula is torn and torn between Russia and Ukraine.
Crimea was Russian until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave the peninsula to Ukraine in 1953. At the time, both what is today Russia and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union, so Crimea’s status mattered less. When Ukraine became independent in 1991, Crimea became Ukrainian.
For Ukraine, Wednesday’s attack is about destroying an air defense system that has ensured Russian air supremacy over Crimea and the Black Sea for a long time.
– Crimea belongs to Ukraine, writes the UK’s foreign minister, James Cleverly, in a message on X (formerly Twitter) following the attack.
During Arendal Week, NATO Chief of Staff Stian Jenssen caused a furore when he said in a panel debate that a solution to the Ukraine war could be for Ukraine to gain NATO membership in exchange for ceding territory, specifically Crimea, to Russia.
The statement has garnered a lot of criticism, and the NATO summit has later nuanced the statement.
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2023-08-23 14:54:20
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