Stringer | AFP | Getty Images Russia reported new Ukrainian drone strikes on Friday night, a day after explosions near military bases in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine and Russia itself, apparent demonstrations of Kiev’s growing ability to strike Moscow’s assets away from the front lines. The latest incidents followed massive explosions last week at an airbase in Russian-annexed Crimea. In a new assessment, a Western official said the incident had rendered half of Russia’s air force in the Black Sea useless at a stroke. Russia’s RIA and Tass news agencies, citing a local official in Crimea, reported that Russian anti-aircraft forces appeared to be in action near the western Crimean port of Yevpatoriya on Friday night. Video posted by a Russian website showed what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile hitting a target. Reuters could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the video. Tass cites a local official as saying that Russian anti-aircraft forces shot down six Ukrainian drones sent to attack the town of Nova Kakhovka, east of the city of Kherson. Ukraine says recapturing Kherson is one of its top priorities. Separately, an official in Crimea said defense forces there shot down an unspecified number of drones over the city of Sevastopol. “The Ukrainian armed forces treated the Russians to a magical evening,” said Sheri Khlan, a member of the Kherson regional council that was dissolved by Russian occupation forces. The night before, multiple explosions were reported in Crimea – which Moscow annexed in 2014 – including near Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and in Kerch near a huge bridge to Russia. Inside Russia, two villages had been evacuated after explosions at an ammunition dump in Belgorod province, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from territory controlled by Ukrainian forces.
Kyiv is concerned about the incidents in Crimea
Kyiv has withheld official comment on incidents in Crimea or inside Russia, while it has hinted that it is behind them using long-range weapons or sabotage. A Western official said on Friday that at least some of the incidents were Ukrainian attacks, saying Kyiv was consistently achieving “kinetic results” deep behind Russian lines. The massive explosions on Aug. 9 at Russia’s Saky air base on the Crimean coast put more than half of the Black Sea Fleet’s fighter jets out of service, the official said, in one of the costliest attacks of the war. Russia denied any aircraft were damaged in what it called an accident, although satellite images showed at least eight burned warplanes and several huge craters. Moscow fired the head of its Black Sea fleet this week. Ukraine hopes its apparent new ability to strike Russian targets behind the front lines can turn the tide in the conflict by disrupting the supply lines Moscow needs to support its occupation. A senior US defense official said on Friday that US President Joe Biden’s administration was preparing another $775 million security aid package for Ukraine that included surveillance drones and, for the first time, mine-resistant vehicles. Since last month, Ukraine has been using Western-supplied rockets to strike behind Russian lines. Some explosions reported in Crimea and Belgorod were beyond the range of the munitions Western countries have acknowledged sending so far. A senior Ukrainian official said about half of the incidents in Crimea were Ukrainian attacks of some kind and half were accidents caused by Russia’s botched operations. He stressed that the attacks were carried out by saboteurs and not long-range weapons, although he would not say whether Kyiv now has ATACMS, a longer-range version of the US HIMARS missiles it began using in June. The official, who declined to be named, said Ukraine had hoped its strikes would have a greater impact on reducing Russian artillery power, but Moscow adjusted.
Concern about a nuclear plant
Ukraine also issued dire warnings about a frontline nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia complex, where it said it believed Moscow was planning a “large-scale provocation” as a justification for disconnecting the plant from Ukraine’s electricity grid and connecting it to Russian. “If Russian blackmail with radiation continues, this summer may go down in the history of various European nations as one of the most tragic of all time. Because no nuclear power plant anywhere in the world has a procedure for a terrorist state to turn a nuclear power plant into target,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech Friday night. Continuing the blame game, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of bombing the compound, risking a nuclear catastrophe. Ukraine’s nuclear power operator said on Friday it suspected Moscow was planning to transfer the Zaporizhia plant to the Russian power grid, a complex operation that Kyiv says could spell disaster. The power station is held by Russian troops on the bank of a reservoir. Ukrainian forces control the opposite bank. Moscow rejected international calls to demilitarize the plant, and Putin on Friday repeated his accusation that Kyiv was bombing it in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the Kremlin. Macron’s office said Putin had agreed to a mission to Zaporizhia by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Thousands of people have been killed and millions forced to flee since Russia launched its invasion on February 24, saying it aimed to demilitarize Ukraine and protect Russian speakers on what Putin called historic Russian land. Ukraine and Western countries see it as a war of conquest aimed at eradicating Ukraine’s national identity.
