Ukraine says cargo of Russian Kalibr cruise missiles was destroyed in transit to the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
Ukraine has reported the destruction of “a number of” Russian cruise missiles as they have been being transported by rail to Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea.
Ukraine’s army company mentioned late on Monday that a number of Kalibr cruise missiles have been destroyed by an explosion, with out explicitly saying Ukraine was accountable for the blast or precisely how the cargo of highly effective missiles was destroyed.
“An explosion in Dzhankoi metropolis within the north of briefly occupied Crimea destroyed Russian Kalibr-KN cruise missiles as they have been being transported by rail,” Ukraine’s intelligence company mentioned in social media posts. The missiles have been destined for submarine launch by the Russian Black Sea fleet, the company mentioned.
Ihor Ivin, the Russian-installed head of the Dzhankoi administration, was quoted as saying town had come beneath assault from drones and a 33-year-old man suffered a shrapnel harm from a downed drone.
He was hospitalized and was anticipated to outlive. A home, faculty and grocery retailer caught hearth, and the facility grid additionally sustained harm within the assault, Russia’s state-owned information company TASS quoted Ivin as saying on the native Krym-24 TV channel.
The Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, mentioned on social media that anti-aircraft weapons have been fired within the neighborhood of Dzhankoi, the place Ukraine’s intelligence company mentioned the cruise missiles have been destroyed. Aksenov mentioned falling particles injured one individual and broken a house in addition to a retailer.
Russian officers didn’t affirm that missiles have been destroyed within the assault. Ukrainian media reported that the sound of drone engines was heard earlier than the explosion in Dzhankoi.
Kalibr cruise missiles have been used incessantly in Russian assaults on Ukraine. In July 2022, a submarine-launched Kalibr cruise missile killed 23 civilians — together with three kids — within the central Ukrainian metropolis of Vinnytsia. Russia claimed the missile was directed at a gathering of Ukrainian air drive commanders and representatives of Western arms suppliers.
Sounds of the drones that hit Dzhankoy in occupied Crimea are much like these of the Iranian Shahed-136/131 drones.
Some sources speculate that Shaheds have been retargeted to Crimea-based targets. Extra possible, Ukraine has developed drones with comparable engines.
📹by way of @RoksolanaKrim pic.twitter.com/djmDckWpKz— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) March 20, 2023
Whereas experiences of assaults on Russian army bases, assassinations and different targets in Crimea have featured repeatedly all through the warfare, Ukraine has not often, if ever, explicitly claimed accountability for such assaults however does welcome their consequence.
The reported destruction of the cargo of cruise missiles in Crimea follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s go to to the peninsula on Saturday in an unannounced tour to mark the ninth anniversary of the area’s annexation from Ukraine.
Putin made the journey the day after the Worldwide Prison Courtroom (ICC) mentioned it had issued an arrest warrant for his arrest on suspicion of warfare crimes for illegally deporting tons of of kids from Ukraine. The courtroom, based mostly in The Hague, Netherlands, additionally issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for kids’s rights. Russia claims the deportation of kids from Ukraine is a humanitarian act.
The ICC warrants have been instantly dismissed by Moscow as outrageous and welcomed by Ukraine as a serious breakthrough in pursuing justice for the victims of Russian warfare crimes.
In a precursor to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine final yr, Moscow seized Crimea in 2014, then annexed the peninsula in a transfer many international locations condemned as unlawful.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy has promised to recapture all of the Ukrainian land that Russia now occupies, together with Crimea.