Russia suffered a devastating attack on the Belbek airfield, situated near to the Russian military’s Black Sea headquarters, in Crimea. The base was struck by ten long-range ATACMS missiles in what western commentators are calling a “massive attack.”
The Putin regime was characteristically contrary in their comments, admitting that they had suffered damage but saying that the bulk of the attack had been repelled.
Crimean Wind, a group that makes its business to monitor developments in Ukraine, thought Russia’s characterization was not entirely honest. They point out that over an hour after the final missile struck the airfield, the fires engulfing parked aircraft continued to rage out of control and had, in fact grown.
The fires at the based were confirmed by local residents. The runway also is thought to have been damaged.
The ATACMS system boasts medium-range ballistic missiles, and have a reported range of 300km. The damage they caused may prove to be a significant event in the unfolding of the war, as the base housed the Su-27 and Su-30 attack jets that have, to this point, played a key role in prosecuting the air war against Ukraine.
Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev of Sevastapol told reporters that Russian forces went all-out to repel what he calls “Ukranian Nazi” forces. Preliminary reports, he said, show that Russian air defenses had already intercepted several incoming projectiles over the sea and near the Belbek airfield. City services were put on the highest alert level, and members of the local search and rescue service were already seeing success against fires caused by falling projectile shrapnel outside the village of Polyushko.
The attack is the latest in a series of strikes by Kyiv across the border into both Crimea and Russia itself. On May 14, an attack—suspected to have been conducted by a drone—destroyed the power station that serviced a top-secret FSB (Federal Security Service) installation. The destroyed plant was tasked with developing of secure communications equipment for the Russian army.
