A Ukrainian drone strike has hit a Russian ammunition dump in occupied Crimea, according to Moscow-installed authorities, though conflicting reports suggest the attack was carried out by Storm Shadow missiles.
Sergei Aksyonov claimed 11 drones were “shot down by air defense forces and suppressed by electronic warfare,” but also said the facility in the Dzhankoi area had been “hit” and a residential building in the area was damaged.
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"In the sky over the Crimea, 11 enemy UAVs were shot down by air defense forces and suppressed by electronic warfare," Aksyonov said on Telegram. "There was a hit in the ammunition depot in the Dzhankoi district."
He did not provide further details on any damage resulting from the hit.
He added that a private house in Crimea's Kirovsky district had been "damaged" as a result of the strike and emergency services were at the scene.
The Russian information platform Rybar on Jul. 24 Monday morning said Ukrainian planners used British Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Crimea in the early-morning strikes, and all of them hit. Waves of drones preceded the four cruise missiles, helping the precision-guided weapons penetrate Russian air defenses, the report said.
“According to information from the (Russian) Defense Ministry 17 drones were shot down…a little later Su-24 bombers operated by the Ukrainian air force launched four cruise missiles – three at an ammunition dump in the vicinity of Volny (Crimea), and one at a repair base by the Novostepny (Crimea). Unfortunately, all four hit their targets,” the report said.
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Rybar is a pro-Russian military information channel with 1.1 million followers on Telegram. Its founder, Mikhail Zvinchuk. Is a former employee of the Russian Defense Ministry's press service.
Successful Ukrainian strikes on Saturday against a Russian air force airfield and adjacent fuel dump, near the Crimea village Oktyabrske Crimea, likewise were the work of Ukraine-launched Storm Shadow missiles, the Rybar report said. Other Crimea-based information platforms citing eyewitnesses credited Ukrainian kamikaze drones with the attack. Video images from the scene showed thick black smoke near a rail station.
Moscow has an airbase at Dzhankoi which, according to Ukrainian military intelligence, is Russia’s largest in Crimea.
“The enemy keeps reserves in the north of occupied Crimea to strengthen its troop groups,” deputy chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Brig. Gen. Oleksiy Hromov, said last year.
“The city of Dzhankoi and the adjacent areas have actually turned into the largest military base in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, from where Russian occupation troops and weapons and military equipment of the Russian Armed Forces are redeployed.”
Elsewhere, two explosions rocked Moscow in the early hours of Monday morning in what Russia has claimed was a “terrorist” drone attack on the capital by Ukraine.
The TASS news agency reported one drone crashed in Komsomolsky Prospekt, near the defense ministry, while another hit a business center on Likhacheva Street by one of Moscow's main ring roads.
Pictures and video posted to social media showed the business center with some damage visible to the top of the tall building.
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