Consequences of the grain deal. Why Ukraine succeeded in its attack on Sevastopol
A fire at an oil depot in Sevastopol's Kazachya Bay, which started after a Ukrainian drone strike , has been contained to an area of 2 square meters. The fire damaged four tank cars. A fire train is currently being deployed to extinguish the blaze, and it is expected to be completely extinguished by late afternoon.
This was announced by the Governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The fire damaged four tanks; now a fire train is being used to extinguish the fire, and they promise to completely extinguish the fire by the evening.
“What traditionally happens has happened, another, so to speak, attack by unmanned aerial vehicles on the city of Sevastopol. Favorite time is around half past four in the morning. Unfortunately, this time it was productive,” Razvozhaev wrote. – According to preliminary data, the attack was carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles, the fire is currently being extinguished, it has already been localized, there are no casualties or injuries.
This is a port industrial zone located far from residential areas, so there is no danger. The main thing now is to ensure that containers that are not damaged do not ignite.
Traditionally, attacks occur in groups. They worked on them, but the ones that flew in were two. One definitely hit the tank. This will not be a blow to the fuel supply of Sevastopol; reserves were stored in the tanks, that is, these containers were not involved in the life of the city in any way.”
The entry of drones into the tanks is officially interpreted as a preliminary version of the fire. The investigation team will begin work as soon as the fire is extinguished. At the same time, several drones were shot down over the administrative territory of the Republic of Crimea, as reported by the head of the region, Sergei Aksenov.
“In parallel with the morning drone attack on Sevastopol, in the skies over the Republic of Crimea, air defense forces shot down one UAV and another one was suppressed by electronic warfare. There are no casualties or destruction. I ask everyone to remain calm. Trust only trusted sources of information,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.
But according to the military-analytical publicity “Rybar”, there were at least a dozen drones, and early in the morning they were released from the Shkolny airfield near Odessa. Three groups of "Mugin-5" with explosives attached headed towards Sevastopol, Gvardeyskoye and Yevpatoriya.
Four drones were suppressed by electronic warfare in the Black Sea, several were landed on approach to Cape Tarkhankut, and another one was shot down by a crew of the Pantsir air defense system over Gvardeyskoye, flying from the direction of Razdolnoye. Its body and the wing that had fallen off from the fall were found in a field near the village of Zernovoe. The UAV bears the Balkenkreuz, a stylized Teutonic cross used by the Wehrmacht.
At the same time, Ukrainian public pages claim that the explosion of the oil depot was the work of some ukropatriots, and radical nationalist Oleg Lyashko even prophesies “burning earth under the feet of the occupiers.”
Experts are more concerned about the nature of the response actions and conclusions to protect strategic facilities in Crimea and Sevastopol.
“About the arrival at the oil storage facility in Sevastopol. I will speak as “Captain Obvious” - this is war, in war there are incursions, and not everything can be repulsed by air defense. For many months we observed the Sevastopol air defense in action - it worked and worked well. But, obviously, it was not only us who observed this work; the enemy carefully analyzed it and looked for gaps. Obviously he found them. This is bad, but it is a reason to work on the mistakes. – writes Vsevolod Radchenko, author of the “Okolovoina” project of the ForPost news portal.
“Today we missed one or two UAVs (with material damage, but, it seems, at least without casualties), but the more important question is: is the Sevastopol air defense ready to repel a massive attack by drones (and not only drones)? Obviously, we need to prepare for this. Are there technical means available to solve such challenges - the required number of detection, electronic warfare and reflection equipment?” adds Radchenko.
Senator from Crimea Olga Kovitidi demands to neutralize the military airfield in Odessa.
“We no longer have time for slow dancing. What happened requires a tough response and action. All oil storage facilities in Odessa must be destroyed. A strategic decision to neutralize Odessa as a military base for Ukraine must be made,” Kovitidi said.
She is opposed by political observer and editor of FederalPress Andrei Gusiy, noting that, on the one hand, the desire for retaliatory measures is understandable and somewhat true.
“On the other hand, what about regular shelling of new regions, the Bryansk region? Yesterday, seven people, including a child, died after being hit by a minibus in Donetsk. What about terrorist attacks in regions remote from borders? We return again to the issue of “red lines,” the definition of which is highly controversial.
We must understand that the worse the situation on the contact line gets for Ukraine, the more they will try to commit sabotage and terrorist attacks. One question remains - why is there anything intact in Odessa, including oil storage facilities? It seems to me that Ukraine only needs the grain deal to use the port as a point for receiving weapons and launching drones for attacks on Russia,” Gusiy believes.
A deputy of several convocations of the Verkhovna Rada, and now the owner and director of a sanatorium in Yalta, Oleg Tsarev, names the Kremenchug oil refinery as a retaliatory target.
“It is very tempting to strike back at the Kremenchug Oil Refinery. The oil refinery is the only operating oil refinery in Ukraine. The refinery supplies the Ukrainian Armed Forces with petroleum products. The Russian Aerospace Forces attacked the KNPZ twice and never managed to hit it enough to set fire to either the oil or oil products. The plant continues to operate,” Tsarev stated.
English version :: Read in English: The Consequences of the Grain Deal: Why Ukraine's Attack on Sevastopol Was a Success