Crimea Satellite Photos Show Russia Military Hub Damage After Kyiv Strikes

Satellite photos have been released showing the aftermath of a Ukrainian strike in the city of Dzhankoi in annexed Crimea that purportedly destroyed an advanced Russian air-defense system.

Ukraine's General Staff said its forces "successfully attacked one Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system near Dzhankoi, as well as two enemy S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems near Chornomorske and Yevpatoria."

Newsweek could not independently those claims, and contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Attacks on Crimea have ramped up throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, as Kyiv vows to reclaim the Black Sea peninsula. The region was annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The photos are from California-based global imaging company Planet Labs. They were obtained by Radio Svoboda, the Russian service of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Monday, and shared on Telegram.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed a military facility" in Dzhankoi, the news outlet said.

Radio Svoboda added that, while the quality of satellite images is not high enough to identify the affected equipment accurately, they show that an object appeared in the targeted location last month, and that fortifications were also built close by.

The Ukrainian military said Monday that the long-range strikes damaged radar equipment that form key parts of Russian air-defense systems.

Military expert Anatoly Khrapchinskyi told Radio Svoboda that the Russian Podlet radar system, which is used in the S-300 and S-400 air-defense systems, could have been at the site of the attack in the satellite images.

Ukraine has frequently attacked Russian military bases, saying they are legitimate targets in the ongoing war.

The British Defense Ministry said in an assessment on May 1 that such attacks will likely force Russia to scatter fighter jets and move air-defense systems in the future.

Last week, a Russian pro-war military blogger urged Putin to address his country's air defenses after a reported strike on the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine damaged parts of a Russian S-300/400 air defense system.

"Russian occupier bloggers take extremely seriously the threat to Russian air defense systems from allied forces, including ATACMS ballistic missiles," Boris Rozhin, a Crimea-based Russian war blogger, wrote on his Telegram channel. He added that a revision of the "architecture" of Russia's air-defense systems is urgently needed.

"It is necessary to be able to separate control cabins, launchers and other machines of the complex several hundred meters from each other. Creation of anti-fragmentation screens and curtains for all elements of the air defense system and mandatory reservation of control cabins where the crews are located," Rozhin wrote.

"In general, a change in the appearance of air defense systems from bulky 'cubes' visible for kilometers to the most compact 'transformers' capable of camouflage on the ground."

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