New strikes are planned by Ukraine on the annexed peninsula in the Black Sea as an emergency drill in the Russian high command has been called ‘Crimean Alert’
Vladimir Putin fears losing full control over Crimea as punishing new strikes are planned by Ukraine on the annexed peninsula in the Black Sea.
A picture shows an emergency drill in the Russian high command to gameplay repelling an expected sudden invasion by the Ukrainian armed forces. The operation was called “Crimean Alert” and involved commanders and senior reservists.
It came as Russian access to this “jewel” of territories grabbed from Ukraine has been hit by the destruction of key access road and rail bridges. “This exercise shows Putin is running scared over losing some or all of Crimea which would be a severe and perhaps fatal body blow for him,” said a Western diplomatic source.
Participant reservist Colonel Viktor Murakhovsky revealed the war game and said the planning involved an unconventional Ukrainian landing operation “with the mass use of drones, long-range high-precision weapons and fast boats”. According to partisan group ATESH, occupation administrations in the ports of Kerch and Feodosia have been ordered to “completely evacuate valuable documents and equipment” by this weekend, confirming Russian fears.
An exodus of pro-Putin officials to Russia is already underway, according to the resistance group. With almost no fuel available in Crimea, some officials “suddenly ‘fell ill’, took health leave and hurriedly left for Krasnodar region”
“Crimean collaborators are well aware that the reckoning for what they have done is near, and Russian air defence will not save them,” said ATESH. Overnight, Ukraine took out three power plants in Crimea – including at Bilohirsk – and attacked Russians military airfields.
Russia also fears an imminent bid to explode Putin’s £3billion Crimean Bridge, which would further limit access to the popular summer holiday region which is now shunned by Russian tourists. Almost none of the seven million expected this summer have arrived.
Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko – Putin’s closest ally – told his people to avoid Russian vacations. “Please refrain from travelling to Russia today, especially to the border regions. Drones are falling there every day,” he warned.
He continued: “We have not closed the borders. It is up to each individual to decide whether to go or not.” A day of mourning is held today in Ukraine for the civilians killed in a Putin missile strike on a residential building in Kyiv yesterday.
More bodies were pulled from the rubble overnight, taking the death toll to 30. Footage shows the appalling moment of the strike, and the horrific destruction of ordinary homes.
At least four more civilians died today as Russia hit a home in Sumy region. The attack killed two women, an elderly man and girl aged one.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Russia no longer has any other argument in favour of its war except its ballistics. Putin still intends to ‘win’ by attacking residential buildings, rather than ending this war.”
In Kherson, a city in the south of Ukraine, Russia killed a doctor and wounded a nurse in a strike on a hospital. In a major missile strike on energy facilities by Ukraine, the Russian border city of Belgorod suffered a major blackout.
A woman was killed in the attack.
