Stayed away from the fighting since the launch of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24, the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, is in the sights of the Ukrainian army. After a first attack on August 9 on the Saky military airfield, located to the west of this territory, violent explosions again shook, Tuesday, August 16, a Russian base installed in the district of Djankoï, in the north-east of the region.
According to images posted on social networks, a large ammunition depot exploded early in the morning in the village of Maïskoye, causing damage over several hundred meters around. Shortly after, Sergueï Aksionov, the governor of the “republic of Crimea”, admitted that the attack had injured two people and forced the authorities to evacuate more than 3,000 inhabitants. The railway line serving the peninsula from Russia, located nearby, was also damaged and passenger and freight traffic was interrupted.
While they had denied any Ukrainian attack on the Saky air base, assuring that it was an accidental fire, the Russians this time attributed the explosion of the Djankoi ammunition depot to “an act of sabotage”without giving further details. “The necessary measures are taken to eliminate the consequences of sabotage”, said the Russian Ministry of Defense, citing damaged railway lines and electrical installations. For its part, kyiv confirmed the explosion but did not claim responsibility for the operation.
Theoretically, the sites targeted in Crimea for ten days are beyond the reach of the Ukrainian army. Both the Saky air base and the Djankoï depot are located more than 200 kilometers from the front. Far too far for the US-delivered Himars multiple rocket launchers, which were supplied with projectiles no further than 80 kilometers. Washington reiterated that it had not given Ukraine ATACMS ballistic missiles, with a theoretical range of 300 kilometers, to avoid any risk of escalation with Moscow.
“Crimea, a very important logistics node for the Russians”
If the hypotheses of attacks by drones or infiltrated special forces do not appeal to experts, that of Ukrainian-made missiles “boosted” by allied countries is favored by part of the military community. Some refer in particular to the existence of “two or three pitchers” produced by Yuzhnoye Design Office, a Ukrainian aerospace industrialist, which would be capable of firing ballistic missiles equipped with “friendly” guidance systems.
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