Ukraine on Thursday said it had struck a military airfield on the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula, the latest claimed attack on the Black Sea territory Kyiv has vowed to recapture.
“On the night of September 21, the Defense Forces of Ukraine launched a combined attack on a military airfield of the occupiers near the city of Saky in the temporarily occupied Crimea,” the army’s communication department said in a statement on social media.
A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service whose forces were involved in the attack said that there were at least a dozen warplanes and Pantsir missile defence system at the airfield at the time of the attack.
A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service whose forces were involved in the attack said that there were at least a dozen warplanes and Pantsir missile defence systems at the airfield at the time of the attack.
The airfield also housed a training centre for operators of drones that Russia uses to target Ukraine, the source said, adding that the strikes had “inflicted serious damage to the equipment of the occupiers”.
The SBU source said Ukraine had used drones that had “overwhelmed Russian air defenses” and then launched Neptune cruise missiles.
“The occupiers cannot feel safe in the occupied peninsula,” the source added.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv has vowed to take back the peninsula.
