Crimean Airfield Hit by Explosions After ATACMS Strike: Reports

Powerful explosions rocked the Saky air base in western Crimea on Friday, according to local Telegram channels, which reported that an ammunition depot was struck and a radar station was destroyed in ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) strikes.

Ukrainian forces struck annexed Crimea with four of the U.S.-supplied missiles, wounding two Russian servicemen, reported the Astra Telegram channel, a project run by independent Russian journalists, citing sources in local emergency services.

The ammunition depot was struck at the air base in the western town of Novofedorivka, while the radar station was hit at a Russian air defense deployment site located 3 miles from the village of Shelkovichnoye in the Saky district, it said.

Videos and images circulating on social media showed huge fires, reportedly in Crimea, following the strikes.

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

Russian authorities haven't commented on the reported strikes, and Kyiv hasn't claimed responsibility. Newsweek couldn't independently verify the use of ATACMS in the attack and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry and Ukraine's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.

The Crimea-based Telegram channel Crimean Wind also reported that an ammunition depot was hit at the Saky air base, sharing an image that appears to show a blaze and smoke rising into the night sky.

The Saky airfield was previously targeted by Kyiv's forces in January, when Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukraine's Air Force commander, said a control point used by occupying Russian forces had been destroyed.

"Saky airfield! All targets have been shot down!....Thanks to our pilots for their excellent work!" he wrote on social media at the time.

Ukraine is also reported to have used ATACMS last month to strike a Russian deep space network hub allegedly used by Russian Aerospace Forces in Crimea.

Kyiv's forces "successfully struck" Russia's Center for Long-Range Space Communications in the village of Vitino in the Saky region, open-source intelligence X (formerly Twitter) account OSINTtechnical said at the time.

The center is one of three complexes that make up Russia's Yevpatoria Center for Deep Space Communications, which supports manned and robotic space missions. The facility was reportedly previously struck in December 2023 with British-supplied Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles.

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