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Ukraine shared dramatic footage of an attack on a Russian anti-aircraft system as reports emerge of a separate strike on an anti-ship missile launcher based in Russian-controlled Crimea.
On Wednesday, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said it had destroyed a Russian S-400 air defense system in Crimea at around 10 a.m. local time at Cape Tarkhankut, on the western edge of the peninsula.
"As a result of the explosion, the installation itself, the missiles installed on it and the personnel were completely destroyed," Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) said in a post on Telegram, publishing a video showing a large explosion followed by a dense cloud of smoke.
As Ukraine's counteroffensive has rolled on since early June, Crimea has become an increasingly frequent target for Ukrainian strikes. Although the Kremlin has controlled the Black Sea peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine since 2014, Kyiv has frequently vowed to wrestle back the territory from Moscow.
Separately on Wednesday, a Bastion launch system for Russia's Onyx supersonic anti-ship missiles and an unknown number of radar stations were damaged in the Russian-controlled annexed peninsula, Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, said in a post on Telegram on Wednesday.
"There were seven explosions in total," he added.
Andryushchenko shared a photograph of a thick plume of smoke rising in the distance in front of what appears to be a beach filled with vacationers, which has also circulated on social media.
Russian authorities, including the Moscow-backed governor of Crimea, had not yet publicly commented on the reports at the time of publication. Newsweek reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry via email for comment.
Russia has used Onyx supersonic anti-ship missiles to target Ukrainian port cities along the Black Sea coastline and used Crimea to launch attacks on Ukrainian territory throughout the war.
Earlier this week, Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had promised that Kyiv would carry out further attacks on Crimea.
Several Russian military facilities are located in Cape Tarkhankut, which Ukraine's military has been "actively monitoring for several weeks," influential Russian military blogger Rybar wrote on Wednesday. The account is thought to be run by a former Russian Defense Ministry translator.
Ukraine initially targeted the area with two drones, which were intercepted by Russian defenses, before launching three missiles at Cape Tarkhankut, Rybar wrote.
Newsweek cannot independently verify this information and has reached out to the Ukrainian General Staff via email for comment.
About the writer
Ellie Cook is a Newsweek security and defense reporter based in London, U.K. Her work focuses largely on the Russia-Ukraine ... Read more