More Ukrainian Missiles Hit Russian Military Bases In Crimea

Ukraine continues to target Russian ammunition storage facilities, reducing its enemies ability to resist the Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

Targets in Crimea are a priority as their destruction is also a form of psychological warfare that unnerves Russians who moved to the occupied peninsula in hopes of starting a new life on the cheap. Now many are fleeing back to mainland Russia. JL 

Isabel Coles and colleagues report in the Wall Street Journal:

Explosions tore through a military base in Russian-occupied Crimea, days after Ukraine targeted a bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia, reaching far behind the front lines. The blasts in Crimea took place in the peninsula’s eastern Kirovsky district. More than 2,000 residents were being evacuated because of a fire at a military training ground. Refat Chubarov, the head of the Crimean Tatar community, said it was an ammunition storage facility.

Explosions tore through a military base in Russian-occupied Crimea on Wednesday—days after Ukraine targeted a bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia—reaching far behind the front lines as Kyiv’s forces struggle to gain ground on the battlefield.

Hours earlier, Russia targeted the Ukrainian port city of Odesa with a barrage of missiles and drones in a second consecutive night of strikes, after Moscow pulled out of an international agreement ensuring safe passage for Ukraine’s grain exports through the Black Sea.

The Russian government renewed threats to cargo ships heading to Ukraine on Wednesday, saying that it would consider all such vessels as potentially carrying military supplies. The Russian Defense Ministry also said in a written statement that parts of the Black Sea, including areas in international waters had been declared “dangerous for navigation.”

Wheat futures surged 8% on Wednesday.

The blasts in Crimea took place in the peninsula’s eastern Kirovsky district, Russian state news agency TASS said. More than 2,000 residents were being evacuated because of a fire at a military training ground, said the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, without disclosing the cause. Refat Chubarov, the head of the Crimean Tatar community, said it was an ammunition storage facility. 

Kyiv didn’t comment. Earlier this week, Ukraine claimed responsibility for a naval drone attack on the Kerch Bridge that demonstrated its ability to strike far behind the front lines. The attack, which disabled the bridge for the second time since Russia’s invasion in February last year, comes in the midst of a Ukrainian counteroffensive that is progressing more slowly than Kyiv and its allies had hoped.

anna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, tied the latest attacks on Odesa to Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal.

“One of the Russians’ tactics is to launch drones and missiles to exhaust our air-defense systems,” Maliar said in an interview. “We have an air-defense shortage across the country. And there are certain types of missiles that we can’t shoot down,” she added, referring to parts of the country not covered by the Patriot air-defense system capable of downing ballistic rockets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday he had tasked the military with bolstering security at the port and asked partners to increase pressure on Russia to resume exports of grain. 

The U.S. announced a new $1.3 billion security package for Kyiv on Wednesday that includes equipment to help Ukraine protect its ports.

The Black Sea grain pact represents one of the few diplomatic successes in nearly 17 months of war. Brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, the agreement allowed Ukraine to resume shipping foodstuffs from three Black Sea ports in August last year, months after the Russian invasion brought those exports to a halt.