Ukrainian special forces were behind the daring attack on a Russian airbase 125 miles into occupied Crimea, according to a Kyiv official.
The official, speaking to the Washington Post, did not disclose how the strike on Tuesday was carried out. A US official told the newspaper that Ukrainian forces appeared to have carried out the attack without using a weapon provided by Washington.
Another anonymous Ukrainian official told the New York Times that partisan resistance fighters had been behind the attack in Crimea.
Earlier in the near six-month war, Ukrainian special forces have been known to launch covert attacks in occupied areas, supported by partisans and sympathetic locals.
Witnesses reported at least 12 explosions at Moscow’s Novofedorivka facility near the Black Sea resort of Saki in an attack that killed at least one, injured nine and damaged several Russian aircraft.
Some military analysts investigating the strike believe Ukraine could have used a repurposed Neptune anti-ship missile, which are made domestically, to hit Russia munitions and fuel dumps at the facility.
3:10pmRussian oil flows to Slovakia restoredRussian oil flows via the Druzhba pipeline have been restored to Slovakia and will soon reach other southern European countries, Hungary's MOL energy group has said.Russian state pipeline operator Transneft cited Western sanctions for it halting shipments through the pipeline which runs through Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.Slovakia receives practically all its oil through the Druzhba pipeline. Earlier today the country's Economy Minister Richard Sulik has said an issue over payments for transit had been resolved.MOL said the flows are expected to reach Hungary on Thursday.
2:32pmPutin's 'weakness' exposed by Crimean airbase blastsMoscow's response to a fatal attack on a Russian airbase 125 miles into occupied Crimea has exposed Vladimir Putin's weakness, according to a Ukrainian military analyst.The strong-man president has long insisted the annexed peninsula is Russian and threatened massive retaliation against any attempts to take it back.Moscow has claimed that the blasts on the western coast of Crimea were not an attack and the result of an aviation ammunition exploding.Swallowing the blame for the explosions suggests Putin fears admitting that Ukrainian forces were behind the attack, analyst Oleh Zhdanov said."He's expected to protect Crimea as Russia proper," he said."Now he's afraid to recognize that it was done by the Ukrainian armed forces."A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, has cryptically said that the blasts were caused either by a Ukrainian-made long-range weapon or were the work of guerrillas operating in Crimea.The base on the Black Sea peninsula is out of the range of the missiles supplied by the US for use in the Himars systems.