Smoke rises from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet HQ in Sevastopol, Crimea after a drone hits the building, August 20, 2022

EA on RTE: Ukraine War — Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian Attacks on Crimea, Russia’s Stalling Offensive

Source: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1357 GMT:

Russian authorities have ordered an investigation into last night’s killing of Daria Dugina, daughter of “Putin’s Brain” Alexander Dugin.

Ukrainian officials have denied involvement in the car bombing, 20 km (12 miles) west of Moscow.

Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said in a televised statement, “I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state.”

He blamed internal power struggles between “various political factions” in Russia for the killing.

In March and in April on Pakistan’s PTV World, EA’s Scott Lucas debated Dugina — who appeared on international media as Daria Platonova — challenging her promotion of the Kremlin line and Russian disinformation.

See also EA on PTV World: How Russia’s Ukraine Invasion Adds to a Global Food Crisis

EA on Pakistan’s PTV World: Information v. Disinformation Over Russia’s Killing of Civilians

UPDATE 0624 GMT:

The daughter of Alexander Dugin, a prominent Russian ideologue known as “Putin’s Brain”, has been killed by a car bomb.

Darya Dugina died about 20 km (12 miles) west of Moscow in the explosion on Saturday night.

Andrey Krasnov, a friend of Dugina and head of the Russian Horizon social movement, said:

This was the father’s vehicle. Darya was driving another car but she took his car today, while Alexander went in a different way. He returned, he was at the site of the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were the target.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in occupied Crimea was struck by a drone on Saturday.

The drone hit the roof of the building, starting a fire. The Russian-appointed Governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said there were no casualties.

Razvonhaev initially said that Russian forces were unable to shoot down the drone. However, perhaps realizing the admission that air defenses had been ineffective, he retracted the statement and said the drone had been successfully downed.

Video showed a loud explosion and a cloud of smoke around the headquarters, pointing to the detonation of the drone rather than its interception by air defenses.

Ukrainian officials did not claim responsibility for the attack. However, it follows a series of operations in the past two months by Ukraine’s military on Russian positions in the peninsula, far behind the frontlines of Russia’s invasion in southern Ukraine.

More than half of the warplanes of Russia’s Black Sea fleet were reportedly destroyed in explosions on Saky airbase in southern Crimea on August 9. Subsequent blasts damaged another base, a major railway hub, and a transformer substation.

The Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters was also struck by a drone on July 31 during Russia’s Navy Day. The attack prompted the cancellation of ceremonies.

Russian forces have been established checkpoints to search Ukrainian cars in Sevastapol. The Kerch Strait Bridge, connecting Crimea with Russia, was blocked, and air raid alarms sounded in Sevastopol for the first time during the invasion.

After Friday’s strike, Razvozhaev said all security services in Sevastopol are on “high alert” mode and controlling every entrance to the city.

Footage on social media has shown cars in traffic jams as residents flee Crimea for Russia.

Residents called out Governor Razvozhaev with questions about how the drone reached the headquarters.

One asked
, “Was our air defence system on a lunch break?” Another chided:

When will you finally close the city? We fought harder against the Coronavirus! There were checkpoints everywhere then, now anyone and everyone enters!!!!

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy commented in his nightly address to the nation, “One can literally feel in the air of Crimea that the occupation there is temporary, and Ukraine is returning.”