Ukraine says it destroyed Russian post at Saky airbase in Crimea

KYIV – Kyiv’s troops have destroyed a Russian command post at the Saky airbase in western Crimea, said General Mykola Oleshchuk, Ukraine’s air force commander.

Gen Oleshchuk, in a Telegram post, thanked Ukrainian soldiers for “wonderful work”, without specifying the timing of the attack or providing other details.

The reported strike followed Ukraine’s recent missile attacks on the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia,

destroying the large landing ship Novocherkassk,

and on western Yevpatoriya and south-western Sevastopol. 

Ukraine’s claims cannot be independently verified. Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that it “intercepted and destroyed” four missiles over the Crimean peninsula early on the morning of Jan 6, after downing 35 drones a day earlier.

Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been

the target of regular Ukrainian drone and missile attacks for months.

 

Ukraine is challenging Russia’s naval superiority in the region

despite lacking warships of its own.

The assaults have forced Russia to move its ships

farther from harm’s way

and have allowed Kyiv to successfully operate

a shipping corridor in the Black Sea

in recent months. 

That has kept grain exports moving even after

Russia pulled out of the United Nations-backed Black Sea grain deal

that had guaranteed safe passage for crops.

Separately on Jan 6, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down two Shahed-type drones fired by Russia at the Mykolayiv and Khmelnytskyi regions. BLOOMBERG