Ukraine launches massive Storm Shadow missile attack on Crimea

The Telegraph: Ukraine launched a massive missile barrage against four Russian military positions in occupied Crimea on Wednesday.

The head of Ukraine’s air force praised a “cleansing of Crimea from the Russian presence”. The Ukrainian air force’s involvement indicated that British Storm Shadow missiles fired from Kyiv’s jets were used in the raid.

It came a day after Ukrainian forces struck a radar station used by air defence systems in north-western Crimea.

Explosions and active surface-to-air interceptors were reported in the major port city of Sevastopol and the nearby military airfield of Belbek.

Footage of the strike at the Russian air base shared on social media appeared to show a huge plume of smoke rising into the sky. A second video showed another missile striking near the source of the smoke.

Lt Gen Mykola Oleshchuk, the head of Ukraine’s air force, said: “Ukrainian aviators will definitely return home to their native airfield. And now I thank everyone who joined the cleansing of Crimea from the Russian presence.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky with Mykola Oleshchuk, the air force commander who claimed the attack on Crimea was 'cleansing it from the Russian presence' - UKRAINE PRESIDENTS OFFICE/ALAMY

The Russian ministry of defence claimed it had shot down a salvo of 20 Ukrainian missiles over the Black Sea and the occupied peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.

Fragments from downed missiles also crashed into a military unit in Lyubimovka, which is near the Belbek air base.

The Kremlin said there was no damage to any “aviation equipment” in its statement, while Crimea’s Russian-installed governor said there had been no casualties as a result of the Ukrainian strikes.

The Telegraph was unable to verify either side’s claims.

The missile attack came after one of Kyiv’s most senior generals suggested it was poised to launch a renewed counter-offensive to dislodge Russian forces, which could come as soon as the “early spring”.

The Belbek airbase close to where fragments from downed missiles landed - AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev

“Some time in the early spring, Russia’s offensive will be completely exhausted,” Kyrylo Budanov, head of the HUR military intelligence agency, said on Ukrainian television.

“We make a move, the enemy makes a move. Now is the enemy’s turn. It will end, and then ours will start,” he added.