ODESA, Ukraine — To hit targets deep behind enemy lines, the Ukrainian military reportedly turns to residents of Russian-occupied territories who are loyal to Ukraine.
Shadow fighters, also known as partisans, have been credited with a series of recent mysterious attacks: the disgust of the Kremlin-installed mayor of the city of Kherson who had to be evacuated to Moscow in weekend courses; the fatal shooting of the deputy chief of another major city in the region less than 24 hours later; and a series of explosions at a Russian air base in the Kremlin-occupied Crimean peninsula on Tuesday.
As Russian and occupation officials scrambled to determine the cause of Tuesday’s attack, which killed one person, a senior Ukrainian military official with knowledge of the situation said Ukrainian forces were behind the attack. explosion at Saki air base on the west coast of Crimea.
“This was an air base from which aircraft regularly took off for attacks against our forces in the southern theater,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters. The official did not reveal the type of weapon used in the attack, saying only that “an exclusively Ukrainian-made device was used”.
A Ukrainian attack on Russian forces in the Crimean Peninsula would represent a significant expansion of Ukraine’s offensive efforts, which so far have largely been limited to pushing Russian troops back from territories occupied after February 24, when the invasion began.
It would also be embarrassing for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, who often speaks of Crimea, which he illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as if it were holy ground.
Ukraine has few weapons that can reach the peninsula, apart from planes that would risk being shot down immediately by the heavy Russian air defenses in the area. The air base, which is near the town of Novofederivka, is nearly 200 miles from the nearest Ukrainian military position.
Videos verified and reviewed by The New York Times show a plume of smoke rising from the air base just before at least three explosions: two in quick succession and a third moments later. It is unclear from the videos what caused the explosions. Additionally, a video uploaded to social media shows at least one fighter jet, a Su-24M, destroyed on the base’s tarmac.
The senior Ukrainian official said the attack involved partisan resistance forces loyal to the Kyiv government, but he did not reveal whether those forces carried out the attack or helped regular Ukrainian military units target the base, as this sometimes happened in other Russian-occupied territories. territories.
To hit targets far behind enemy lines, Ukraine has increasingly turned to guerrilla warfare in Russian-occupied territories, officials said. Partisans, for example, helped Ukrainian forces target Russian bases and ammunition depots in the Kherson region, according to Ukrainian officials.
Publicly, Ukrainian officials on Tuesday did not confirm the involvement of the Ukrainian military. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said in a statement it could not “determine the cause of the explosion” and suggested base personnel adhere to no-smoking rules.
Other officials have not exactly denied that Ukraine was behind the explosion.
“Crimea’s future must be a pearl of the Black Sea, a national park with unique nature and a global resort, not a military base for terrorists,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. . a tweet. “This is just the beginning.”
In his evening speech, Mr. Zelensky did not specify whether Ukraine was behind the Crimean attack, but he said: “Crimea is Ukrainian, and we will never give it up.” adding in signing that the world should “support the Ukrainian Armed Forces, our intelligence services and all those who are fighting to liberate our land and repel the Russian colonial invasion.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the explosion was caused by the detonation of ammunition stored for fighter jets at the base. While the ministry made no speculation about the possible involvement of Ukrainian forces, Crimean Kremlin-based leader Sergei Aksyonov’s decision to raise the terror threat level to yellow suggested officials were concerned about security on the peninsula.
“This measure is exclusively prophylactic, as the situation in the region is under full control,” Aksyonov said in a statement on Telegram.
Christian Triebert contributed report.
