Ukraine’s top military leader has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on Russian air bases in the occupied Crimean peninsula, including one that devastated the Shaki military facility last month. In an article by lawmaker Mykhailo Zabrodskyi published in the state-run Ukrinform news agency on Wednesday, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, said the attacks were carried out by missiles or rockets, without elaborating. Ukraine has so far only hinted at its involvement in the Crimea blasts, with a senior official telling the Reuters news agency anonymously that the explosions at the air base were the work of Ukrainian saboteurs on the ground. Writing about Ukraine’s response to Moscow’s strategy to “distance” the war from Russian citizens, Zaluzhnyi and Zaborodskyi wrote of “the successful efforts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to transfer physical hostilities to … Crimea. Smoke rises after explosions were heard from the direction of a Russian military base near Novofedorivka, Crimea on August 9 [File: Reuters] “We are talking about a series of successful missile strikes against enemy air bases in Crimea, first of all, the Saky airfield,” the article said. A footnote specified that the Shaqi attack was a “combined strike” that took place on August 9 and put 10 Russian warplanes “out of action.” The Russian Defense Ministry said at the time that air force munitions had been accidentally detonated at the base. Officials in Crimea said one person was killed in the blast and several others were injured. Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the claims. A satellite image shows the aftermath of the explosions at the Saky Air Base in Crimea [File: Planet Labs PBC/Handout via Reuters] If the Saky base is hit by Ukrainian forces, it would mark the first known major attack on a Russian military site in occupied Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol was the target of a small-scale explosion in July in an attack attributed to Ukrainian saboteurs. Russia has long warned Ukraine that any attack on Crimea would trigger massive retaliation, including attacks on “decision-making centers” in Kyiv. The Saky base has been used by Russian warplanes to attack areas in southern Ukraine. Smoke rises above the site of an explosion at a suspected Russian military ammunition storage site near the Crimean village of Mayskoye on August 16 [File: AP Photo] After the explosions at the Saky base, several explosions rocked the village of Mayskoye in Crimea on August 16 at a suspected Russian ammunition depot. The Ukrainian army published a spectacular video of the explosions. Russia said the blasts were “the result of sabotage” and did not claim responsibility. Crimea borders the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, which is occupied by Russian forces. Ukraine last week announced Kharkiv as the focus of a push to retake territory.
