Ukraine claims it hit several Russian air defense systems in recent strike

Ukraine claims to have damaged several advanced air defense systems after it attacked a Russian airbase in Crimea according to the country’s military intelligence agency. This is what we know about the strike and what it destroyed. 

At least four S-400 Triumf were either destroyed or critically damaged during a nighttime attack on the Dzhankoi military airbase. The strike happened on April 16th according to a statement from Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence. 

"The number of damaged or destroyed enemy aviation facilities and the number of casualties among the personnel of the Russian army of occupation is being clarified," the statement explained according to a translation from Business Insider. 

Three radar stations, air defense equipment, and airspace surveillance equipment were also destroyed or damaged in the strike, according to the military intelligence statement. Footage from the attack was also released by Ukraine’s defense ministry. 

In the video footage, several bright lights can be seen flying towards their target at night before the video cuts to an explosion that the defense ministry claimed happened at the Dzhankoi airbase. However, Business Insider could not confirm the claim. 

The pro-Ukrainian Crimean partisan group Atesh later confirmed the strike in a post on Telegram and reported that at least one S-400 Triumf had been destroyed in the attack as a result of its launcher exploding, which damaged the rest of the system.

Atesh explained that the Russians had placed the missiles for their air defense units too close to the launchers but provided no other detailed information about the attack due to the group’s worry over the safety of its agents.  

"The occupiers believed in their newest air-defense system so much that they placed warehouses with missiles directly next to the launcher," Atesh explained according to a translation of the partisan organization’s comment from Business Insider. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By Vitaly V. Kuzmin, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Ukrainian military news website reported the strike against Dzhankoi airbase was carried out using American-made MGM-140 ATACMS ballistic missiles, citing sources on Telegram, but added Ukrainian sources suggested the missiles were only modernized Soviet weapons. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons By U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center, Public Domain

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed that Kyiv was behind the strike on the Dzhankoi airbase in a video address where he thanked all those who were involved in the successful attack according to a report from Newsweek. 

"Today, the Ukrainian armed forces carried out a precise strike on the occupiers in Dzhankoy, on an airfield," Zelensky said. "Thank you, warriors. Thank you for your accuracy. Thank you to commander-in-chief Syrskyi for organizing this operation."

Newsweek also reported that as many as 30 Russian personnel may have been killed in the strike and another 80 wounded. The news agency also cited pro-Russian Telegram channels that noted 12 ATACMS ballistic missiles may have been used in two waves. 

“Strikes in Crimea, which is Russia's central logistics hub for its forces in southern Ukraine, have become routine in the war started by Moscow, as Kyiv seeks to reclaim territory occupied by Russian forces,” Newsweeks Isabel Van Brugel explained

“Attacks have struck military targets in a push to weaken Moscow's defenses and disrupt Russia from transporting equipment, weapons, and troops from mainland Russia into the peninsula,” Van Bruel added. 

The S-400 Triumf is the fourth-generation interaction of Russian surface-to-air missile defense technology according to Missile Threat, which added that the system began its development in 1993 and entered service in 2007. 

The Russian S-400 is capable of engaging aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. The S-400 has had several high-profile deployments in recent years including Kaliningrad, Syria, and Crimea.