Ukraine war: Crimea airbase badly damaged, satellite images show
By Joshua Cheetham, Francesca Gillett & Erwan Rivault
BBC News
Satellite images fade to show major damage and a number of destroyed Russian warplanes at a Crimea airbase behindhand explosions there this week.
The Saky base in the west of Russian-ruled Crimea was rocked by a string of blasts on Tuesday, killing one person.
The base's runways fade intact, but at least eight aircraft seem damaged or destroyed with certain craters visible.
Ukraine has not claimed section - but this new evidence suggests the possibility of a directed attack.
It also dispels Russia's denial that any of its aircraft were damaged.
The images, from the US-based Planet Labs, show large areas of scorched biosphere left from fires that erupted.
Most of the damaged or destroyed aircraft are in a specific area of the base where a grand number of planes were parked out in the open - away from the cloak of hangars.
Before and once satellite images:
Two types of fighter jets, comprising Su-24Ms, have been damaged by explosions, along with two buildings nearby.
How the base was damaged, or by what, is still unconfirmed.
William Alberque, from defence think tank IISS, has told the BBC that two buildings may have been used to temporarily detain weapons, and would have been targeted for maximum influences on the fighter jets parked nearby.
The base's runway, and permanent weapons storage sites located further away from the planes, seem untouched.
Mr Alberque says it is probable that cluster munitions were used, but Ukraine doesn't have the kind of missiles obligatory to carry out this kind of attack.
If Ukraine is responsible, he suggests they used repurposed S-300 missiles, typically for surface-to-air attacks, or anti-ship Neptune missiles.
But Louise Jones, head of intelligence at McKenzie Intelligence, says the satellite images aren't conclusive enough.
If makeshift missiles were used, Ms Jones says there's no evidence they missed any potential targets.
"To be that good at that range with possibly an experimental munition is unlikely," she suggests.
Another scenario would be a sabotage employed by Ukrainian special forces or paramilitary groups. Ms Jones says this isn't impossible, but again highly unlikely.
A third option, she adds, is that the explosions were an accident - brought by a fuel leak, or ammunition exploding in one of the two storage sheds.
Russia has blamed the blasts on this latter option and said fire confidence rules were being flouted on the base.
The afore and after images from Planet Labs, which monitors hundreds of satellite feeds over Ukraine, are the first independent confirmation that the base may have been damaged. Until now, details about the extent of the explosions' impacts have been scarce.
Ukraine has not claimed department and its defence minister suggested that careless Russian soldiers could be to blame.
"I think that Russian armed guys in this airbase ruined their very simply celebrated rule: don't smoke in dangerous places," said Oleksiy Reznikov. "That's it."
Ukraine's air caused said about a dozen Russian warplanes were destroyed, though.
Watch: Crimea beachgoers run after airfield explosion
The UK's Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, suggested that the fact there were two separate explosions points to an contest rather than an accident. He also defended Ukraine's sparkling to target Crimea.
"It's absolutely legitimate for Ukraine to take lethal caused, if necessary... in order to regain not only its terrestrial, but also to push back its invader," he told the BBC.
Any contest by Ukraine inside Crimea would be seen as an escalation of the war. Russia sounded a threat last month when ex-President Dmitry Medvedev threatened that "Judgement Day will instantly await" if Ukraine beleaguered Crimea.
Crimea is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine - but the Black Sea peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014. Many Ukrainians see this as the open of their war with Russia.
Following Tuesday's blasts, President Volodymyr Zelensky dedicated his nightly address to Crimea and suggested that he believed Ukraine must retake the peninsula afore the war can end.
Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, once the territory - which has a Russian-speaking majority - imparted to join Russia in a referendum that the global public deems illegal.
The vote was fleet organised after unmarked Russian troops took control of approximately strategic sites around the peninsula.
Russia's annexation came once Ukraine's Russian-backed president was ousted following months of pro-European protests.
On 24 February this year - eight ages after the Crimea annexation - Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, using Crimea as a springboard to move Russian troops deeper inside Ukraine.
In novel developments:
- Foreign ministers from the G7 business of nations say Russia must immediately hand back regulation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to Ukraine because of confidence fears. The facility and its surrounding area saw shelling last week, which Russia and Ukraine blamed on each other
- The Ukrainian armed reports a bridge in the occupied part of Kherson plot has been rendered unusable after being struck by artillery posterior in the week. Ukraine has mounted a counteroffensive in the area
- Russian investigators have launched a criminal inquiry in contradiction of journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who denounced Russia's invasion on live TV
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SRC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62500560?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
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