Ukraine has claimed responsibility for an attack on a major Russian military airport in Crimea that caused extensive damage

Ukraine he said Thursday that his forces had struck a Russian military airport on the peninsula Crimeaannexed by Moscow in 2014.

In the attack, carried out on Wednesday, Kiev managed to destroy 4 missile launchers of the S-400 anti-aircraft system, three radar stations, a control point and aerospace surveillance equipmentas reported by Ukrainian Military Intelligence (GUR) on Thursday.

The airport attacked by GUR is located in the city of Dzhankoilocated in the north of the Ukrainian peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014.

A group of Ukrainian partisans operating in Crimea and identifying themselves as Ates yesterday they claimed theirs contribution to the attack without providing further details in order not to compromise the people involved.

President Volodimir Zelensky In his address to the nation last night, he congratulated the army on the “precision” shown in the attack on the airfield. Zelensky specifically congratulated Army Chief Oleksandr Sirski “for organizing this operation.”

Russian Telegram channels had reported explosions at the airport on Wednesday.

Ukraine did not specify the type of weapons used in this blow to the Russian rear, but most reports and information pointed to at least one successful attack half a dozen ballistic missiles starting at 3:30 am Kiev time.

One video showed trails of smoke very similar to the contrails of surface-to-surface missiles. Based on these steles, in the attack on Dzhankoi, at least five Ukrainian weapons were flying on a ballistic trajectoryaccording to an analysis by Ukrainian media Kiev Post.

Russian Military Analysis Group Rybar He said that in a two-phase attack “about 12 operational-tactical missiles were used ATACMS” American-made, probably launched from the Kherson region of Ukraine.

The Russian independent news agency Astra reported that the hypotheses Ballistic missiles have targeted military equipment, pilots, bombers and attack helicopters. One or more probable hits against an ammunition depot started fires with secondary explosions still ongoing five hours after the attack, the report said.

Open source images from the satellite network VIIRS/Finlandoperated by NASAthey showed six large fires in the vicinity of the airfieldsome inside the aircraft skins.

Authorities have closed roads around the Russian Air Force installation, which hosts a important military aviation infrastructure it is near to 50 fighter planesand launched helicopters to patrol local airspace after the attacks.

Geolocalized chat groups in northern Crimea said this at least four powerful explosions occurred followed by dozens of secondary explosions, and that no air raid warning had been announced before the explosions occurred. Some people who posted on channels commonly used by residents of northern Crimea said they had told this dozens of explosionsaccording to an analysis of Kiev Post.

The main Russian combat units stationed at the Dzhankoi base include the 27th Combined Helicopter Regiment, He 39th Helicopter Regimentan air division of the Russian Border Troops Command, the Southern Joint Forces Air Defense Command and a logistics center storing Moscow’s main stockpile of Zircon hypersonic scramjet missiles, Astra reported.

Estimates of the situation carried out by Ukrainian military intelligence at least four helicopter squadrons at the base which operated 12 aircraft each, including Mi-8 transports and Ka-53, Mi-28 and Mi-35 attack helicopters.

In March they lined up around the Dzhankoi base missile launchers, radars and support vehicles of an S-400 air defense systemRussia’s most powerful airspace protection weapon, which the Kremlin has deemed capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.

Currently It is not known whether there were any deaths or injuries in the attack. Several sources reported or published images of medical evacuation helicopters operating near the airfield.