The Ukrainian army claimed to have “successfully attacked” a Russian anti-aircraft system in annexed Crimea on the night of Sunday to Monday. Russian authorities have not commented on the issue, but the Telegram Rybar channel, which is close to the Russian army and followed by more than 1.2 million people, reported a “combined attack” by Kiev on the Ukrainian peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014 .
According to this channel, Ukrainian forces fired two American ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) missiles in the area around the village of Olenivka (Western Crimea). Russian attempts to shoot down the missiles failed, but the attack did not cause any major damage, Rybar assured.
Shortly afterwards, three Ukrainian naval drones were discovered off the coast of Sevastopol, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, the same broadcaster said, at the same time assuring that two of them had been destroyed. Ukraine has stepped up attacks on its areas occupied by Moscow troops and on Russian territory against the backdrop of a slow counteroffensive that Kiev began in early June. In mid-October, Kiev announced that it had successfully used ATACMS missiles with a range of up to 165 km for the first time, which the USA had supplied to it in the greatest secrecy.
Kiev has been demanding these weapons for months in order to be able to remotely destroy Russian bases and supply lines in the south and east of Ukraine, thereby giving the ongoing counteroffensive to liberate its occupied territories a better chance of success.