A drone attack hit the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea on Sunday, causing an explosion that wounded six people, and making the city of Sevastopol cancel its Russian Navy Day celebration.
Russian officials accused Ukraine of carrying out the attack, but officials in Kyiv have not taken credit for the incident. Olga Kovitidi, a Russian senator from Crimea, labeled the explosion a “terrorist attack” and said it wasn’t clear where it was launched from.
The attack came after Ukrainian officials said they were planning to target Crimea and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet using Western-provided arms. But reports described the drone that hit the Black Sea Fleet headquarters as a “makeshift drone” that was carrying a “low-powered explosive device,” suggesting it was not similar to the kamikaze drones the US has given Ukraine.
Oleksiy Arestovich, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the drone attack showed that Russia has weak air defenses in Crimea. “Did the occupiers admit the helplessness of their air defense system? Or their helplessness in front of the Crimean partisans?”
Arestovich suggested that Ukraine could take out the Crimean bridge that connects the peninsula to mainland Russia. The bridge was built after Crimea was absorbed by the Russian Federation in 2014. Ukraine recently took out a much smaller bridge that crosses the Dneiper river in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Kherson using US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
When the US first gave Ukraine HIMARS, it was under the condition that they wouldn’t be used to target Russian territory. But since the US and Ukraine don’t recognize Crimea as Russian, Ukrainian officials have signaled they could use the HIMARS against the peninsula. When asked if the ban on using HIMARS on Russian territory applies to Crimea, the US State Department responded, “Crimea is Ukraine.”
Olga Kovitidi, a Russian senator from Crimea, labeled the explosion a “terrorist attack”
On her defense, she probably doesn’t know her country invaded Ukraine five months ago.
Is not “invasion,” comrade! Is “special military operation!”
Like Truman’s ‘police action’ in Korea, LBJ’s and Nixon’s fiasco in Vietnam? Those aren’t ‘wars,’ because the state says they aren’t. Newspeak and Doublethink at work. And, all the ‘lesser evils’ people vote for are still evil, aren’t they????
Yes, EXACTLY like all the US wars that we aren’t supposed to refer to as wars.
Wars are wars, not “special military operations” or “police actions” or “kinetic military whatsits.”
She probably knows why Crimea is now a part of Russia though. And she’s probably thinking if only the US hadn’t instigated a coup and decided to use Ukraine as a sacrificial lamb to take down Russia we wouldn’t be in this mess. But we can all conveniently forget what happened in 2014, and since, or for the last 30 years for that matter.
This was a little tiny drone armed with what appears to be a grenade. Just another useless PR headline grabber move that has zero bearing on the balance of forces.
Wunderwaffen aren‘t going to end this conflict. Agreeing to implement UNSCR 2202 in full is the path to peace.,
Yeah, a militarily meaningless, pin prick attack that moderately injurred six people is ginned up into a big, PR headline grabber. Bad enough that the MSM does this, but why does Antiwar.com have to play along?
I don’t know. If Russia calls it a ‘terrorist attack” I don’t imagine they are very happy. It doesn’t take much to set off something major.
I believe Russia is calling it a “terrorist attack” because it was launched by “partisans” (or “terrorists,” depending on your POV) from within Crimea. Of course Russia is not “happy” about it, but it really has no military significance, and the Ukrainian flak crowing about it is totally insufferable. I see no reason for Antiwar.com to buy into the fake prominence that the attack was given by the MSM, nor the utterly bogus Ukrainian spin put on it by the flak.
Indeed – during Justin’s days this would not be a headline article, hmmmm
One wonders about the whole story. Why, for instance, the smug nonsense of the Ukrainin official is showcased, and not even questioned.
More globally, instead of lazily repeating the story about the damage to the bridge leading to Kherson, a more sceptical, and useful, antiwar website might question when, if ever, the much, much heralded, Ukrainian “Kherson counteroffensive” is ever going to begin? Or, if it has, why is there no report of retaken territory?
Shouldn’t the goal here be to expose the propaganda efforts of the USA, NATO and their proxy neo Nazi client regime? Certainly, Russian claims can and should be presented with scepticism as well, but, obviously, any claims the Russians make are already getting the full sceptical treatment, and then some, by the MSM, so there is less compelling need for Antiwar.com to provide that kind of coverage. But scepticism of Ukrainian claims is hard to come by in the MSM, and Antiwar.com really should be stepping up here.
Agreed 100%, I I wish Justin were still with us. memory eternal
No longer True…! The peninsula connects to mainland Russia via Northern Land…!
Another meaningless stunt. As The Duran guys point out, Zelenskyy’s whole administration is a bunch of former entertainment guys who cook up Hollywood scripts instead of actually running the war.
It’s sad to see Antiwar.com wasting space on quoting Arestovich as if anything that guy – or Zelenskyy for that matter – says is worth listening to.
Mercouris’ video yesterday reiterates that it seems clear that Russia preparing the “knock-out blow” in Donbass. Most analysts believe that by end of August, Donbass will be cleared of Ukrainian forces including those still shelling Donetsk. Russian forces have apparently punched holes in the main fortification line opposite Donetsk City and are rolling up the Seversk-Bahkmut line, which only leaves the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk line remaining. After that, it will be “game over”.
In response strike Zelensky’s bunker!