Tourists watch as smoke rises from an explosion at Russia’s Saky airbase in occupied Crimea, August 9, 2022
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EA/EuroFile Podcast: The Ukraine War After 6 Months
EA on RTE: Ukraine War — Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian Attacks on Crimea, Russia’s Stalling Offensive
Source: Institute for the Study of War
UPDATE 1208 GMT:
Four children are among 12 people injured in a Russian strike on a five-story residential building in the city of Vosnesensk in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine.
The eye of one girl was torn out by shrapnel.
Vosnesensk is about 30 km (19 miles) from the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant, the second largest in Ukraine.
Four children aged 3-17 are seriously injured as a result of Russia’s rocket strike on a residential building in Voznesensk, Mykolaiv region. A girl lost her eye and is being transferred to Mykolaiv. Five more adults got injured. Here’s what’s left of what used to be their home pic.twitter.com/qTPr1cgq7i
— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) August 20, 2022
UPDATE 1201 GMT:
Reports are circulating of another attack on a key Russian position in occupied Crimea.
A drone is said to have flown into the roof of the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol.
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The Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said nobody was hurt.
UPDATE 1154 GMT:
Two more ships with Ukrainian grain have left the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk.
Since a July 22 deal to lift the Russian blockade, 27 ships have sailed with grain, foodstuffs, and oil.
Saturday’s departures were of the Zumrut Ana, with 6,300 tons of sunflower oil and the MV Ocean S with 25,000 tons of wheat.
Seven more ships are being loaded at three ports with 66,500 tons of wheat, corn, and sunflower oil.
UPDATE 0633 GMT:
Ukrainian forces have again disrupted Russia’s occupation of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine by striking a key bridge.
An overnight attack on the bridge near the Nova Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant at night on August 18-19, “destroyed” Russian plans to restore and reopen the bridge to transport military equipment, according to regional Ukrainian official Serhiy Khlan.
Ukraine has hit all bridges across the Dnipro River and its tributaries, threatening to cut off Russian forces in western Kherson from those in the east. Western officials say Russian pontoon and ferry bridges are limited in the ability to carry heavy military vehicles, weapons, and equipment.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Caught out by Ukraine’s attacks on Crimea, far behind the frontlines of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Russian authorities are stepping up security measures in the occupied Ukrainian peninsula.
Russian forces have established checkpoints to search Ukrainian cars in the city of Sevastapol, indicating a concern that the recent attacks are the product of sabotage. The Kerch Strait Bridge, connecting Crimea with Russia was blocked, and air raid alarms sounded in Sevastopol for the first time during the invasion.
On August 9, the Ukrainians surprised the Russians with a devastating strike on the Saky airbase in southern Crimea, about 125 miles from the frontline in the south of Ukraine.
Without formally taking responsibility for the explosions, Ukrianian officials said at least eight Russian warplanes were destroyed. A “Western official” went further in a briefing on Friday, saying Russia lost “more than half” of its combat naval aircraft in Crimea and the Black Sea.
The exact cause of the blasts has not been established, with analysts speculating that they could be long-range missiles or drone strikes called in by Ukrainian special forces infiltrating the base.
However, they were followed with similar, successful strikes on Russian positions in northern Crimea, including another base, a major railway hub, and a transformer substation.
While operations on the Belbek airbase and the Kerch Strait Bridge do not appear to have blown up targets, Russian military bloggers assess that Ukraine may be carrying out surveillance for further attacks.
The latest $775 million US military aid package to Ukraine, announced on Friday, includes at least a dozen portable, long-endurance surveillance drones.
Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications said that Ukrainian forces have not yet struck the Kerch Strait Bridge with their full capability and that the bridge is not as safe as the Russians had believed.
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