Today at 12:04
The Ukrainian Defense Forces are striking at important Russian military installations in Crimea in order to reduce the enemy’s combat potential. Andrey Ryzhenko, 1st rank reserve captain of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian Navy in 2004-2020, spoke about this on the FREEDOM TV channel.
“This is a continuation of the systematic work that our Defense Forces are conducting on important military facilities in Crimea. In order to reduce the military potential of Russia, which it has accumulated since 2014 after the occupation of Crimea and is now using to wage war against us,” he said.
Ryzhenko named objects that are legitimate military targets of the Ukrainian Defense Forces on the occupied peninsula.
“These objects, they are, in general, already familiar – these are air defense systems, because the density of air defense systems in Crimea is very high. I think this is probably the highest air defense density when compared with the territory of the Russian Federation, these occupied territories. These are ship bases, airfields, communications centers, warehouses – in general, facilities that are directly related to the Russian military group both in Crimea itself and beyond. Therefore, I think that such work was carried out last night. Based on intelligence data, targets were identified and a strike was carried out,” the expert said.
According to him, the Russian occupiers, after successful attacks by the Ukrainian Defense Forces on air defense systems, are forced to transfer the systems from other areas.
“For example, it is known that after attacks about a couple of months ago on air defense systems in the west of Crimea, they even transferred the S-400 system from the Kaliningrad region. And we regularly attack the western part of Crimea, because these complexes are located exactly in the direction of movement of our missiles and drones that are attacking military targets in Crimea. This reduces Russia’s ability to shoot down and provide air defense. But the point is that they are renewing them. The question is how long they will be able to renew them. And they transfer them from very different areas. And they are also known to lack these systems themselves. Remember how chaotically they began to cover Moscow when the first drones flew there a few months ago,” Ryzhenko said.
Read also: Putin is not ready for peace as war approaches its 3rd anniversary, — Macron
Earlier, the former commander of US Forces in Europe, General Ben Hodges, said that by striking Russian military targets in occupied Crimea, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are creating conditions that make this territory unsuitable for the enemy.
