In his interview with The Economist published on 1 November, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief, General Valery Zaluzhnyi said Ukraine had struck Russian-occupied Crimea with American-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles for the first time on 30 October.
On that day, the base of a Russian air defense regiment in Olenivka on Cape Tarkhankut had reportedly been hit, and there were also explosions and smoke reported in Sevastopol, Liga says.
Over the past months, Ukraine intensified air and sea attacks on the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia back in 2014, employing air- and sea-based explosive drones and long-range missiles. General Zaluzhnyi believes Crimea remains Putin’s greatest vulnerability and the linchpin of Russia’s imperial restoration project, and Putin’s legitimacy rests on having brought Crimea “back to Russia.”
The peninsula, connected to Russia via the Kerch Strait bridge built shortly after the occupation of Crimea and via the “land bridge” – Ukraine’s Azov Sea coast, occupied by Russia early in its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, remains critical to the Russian logistics of the ongoing war.
“It must know that it is part of Ukraine and that this war is happening there,” Zaluzhnyi noted.
Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief reveals his strategy to defeat Russia
Read also:
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- Ukraine strikes Russian Black Sea fleet HQ in occupied Crimea
- Frontline report: Ukraine’s complex drone and missile strike on Crimea exposes positions of Russian air defense
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