ISW: There is no evidence that the explosions at the airfield in Crimea were the result of strikes from Ukraine
Experts from the American analytical center "Institute for the Study of Military Conflicts" issued their opinion on the explosions at the Russian ammunition depot in the Crimea at the Saki military airfield near the resort village of Novofedorovka. In their opinion, there is no evidence that the explosion of ammunition occurred as a result of a strike from Ukraine.
Russia did not blame Ukraine for them, and Ukraine did not take responsibility for them
- American military experts stated, thereby indirectly confirming the version of the reason for the explosions of the Russian side.
According to analysts, Kyiv simply does not have strike installations capable of inflicting rocket attacks at such a distance. The ISW rejected the version that the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this case used an American operational-tactical missile system with ATACMS missiles, since “there are no such systems” in the arsenal of the Ukrainian army.
At the same time, the experts could not resist putting forward a hypothesis of how Ukraine, in theory, would be able to modernize existing systems to work over long distances. The ISW report speculates that Kyiv may have modified its Neptune anti-ship missiles to hit the base at a distance of 280 km. As an example, information is given that the Russians have already carried out a similar modernization with their anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, “but at present there is no evidence to support this hypothesis.”
Advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak also denied the involvement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the explosions in Crimea.
Of course not. What are we doing here? These are, perhaps, compensatory mechanisms for ineffective management within the armed forces of the Russian Federation
- he declared.
At the same time, Podolyak did not fail to develop his conspiracy theory in the style of jingoistic patriotism. He suggested that people “from the partisan movement that is gaining momentum” in Crimea could be involved in the explosions at the Russian base.
Could it be? Of course, because the people who lived in the occupation understand that the time of the occupation is ending and you need to show your position. This is because the return of Crimea must be
- returned to the usual rhetoric about the inevitable "liberation" of the Crimea Podolyak.
Earlier, immediately after the explosions, Podolyak stated that “the demilitarization of Crimea” was taking place and “everything is just beginning.” Thus, the representative of the OPU indirectly confirmed that Kyiv is implementing the tactics of sabotage and terrorist activities on the territory of Russia. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities do not officially confirm that their law enforcement agencies are organizing terrorist actions on the territory of the Russian Federation. Apparently, even the Zelensky regime fears that such confessions may be perceived ambiguously in international circles, including in the West.
In the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation the cause of the explosion aviation ammunition at the Saki airfield, located in the Novofedorovka region in Crimea, was called a violation of fire safety requirements. After the incident, the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, announced that in order to ensure the security and anti-terrorist protection of the Republic of Crimea and its citizens, from 20:9 on August 20 to 24:XNUMX on August XNUMX, a high ("yellow") level of terrorist threat will operate on the peninsula.
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