Crimean air base strike leaves 30 Russians dead and 80 injured

As many as 30 Russian servicemen have been killed and aother 80 injured after a strike on a Crimean air base overnight.

Crimean Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported the death toll on Wednesday, from an attack at the airfield in Dzhankoy, northern Crimea.

The air base was described by Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern forces, as a legitimate military target.

She said: “It is clear that this is a military airfield, that is, a legitimate target. But not all maneuvers were successful.”

Russian and Ukrainian sources alike posted footage on social media of the military base engulfed in bright flashes of light and explosions, with sirens going off in the background.

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The explosions reportedly began just before 4 a.m. local time and caused nearby roads to be closed.

Six blazes outside Dzhankoy were recorded by NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System, which tracks fires across the world.

According to Russian military blogger Rybar, Ukrainian forces attacked the base using roughly a dozen Army Tactical Missile System missiles (ATACMS) across two waves of strikes.

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Previous satellite imagery showed Russian helicopters and advances air defences at Dzhankoy, and Atesh detected a “build-up” of air defence systems.

The systems are “not camouflaged in any way” according to the military partisan movement in Crimea.

In August 2022, the Saky air base in the west of Crimea was hit by a string of explosions, damaging multiple warplanes. Then, in February, Ukraine launched missile strikes on the Belbek airfield – close to Sevastopol in the west of Crimea.