Defense Intelligence of Ukraine reports a successful strike on an S-400 medium- to long-range anti-aircraft missile system on the occupied Crimean Peninsula today, August 23rd. The video attached to the official note shows moments after the valuable air defense equipment was hit.
The footage was taken by a reconnaissance drone loitering almost right above the deployment site of the system designed to detect and repel aerial targets from hundreds of miles away.
Read more: Methodical Strikes and Intriguing Tactics: Kamikaze Drones Attack Moscow Again
In the video, we can see that the missile launcher got hit with the subsequent detonation of ready-to-use missiles preloaded in it, so there is a chance other nearby vehicles of the system got caught in collateral effect as well.
"Considering the limited number of such systems available to the enemy, this is a painful blow to the occupiers' air defense system which will have a serious impact on further events in the occupied Crimea," the note from the Ukrainian intelligence service says.
This S-400 launcher was destroyed on Cape Tarkhankut on the western edge of Crimea, near Olenivka village. Earlier today Ukrainian media reported a strike on the cape leading to the successful destruction of a Podlet-K1 air surveillance radar, while the Adviser to the Mariupol city mayor Petro Andriushchenko claimed that a Bastion coastal defense system was destroyed to boot. The information has not been confirmed by official sources as of the time of publication.
Cape Tarkhankut hosts the base of permanent deployment of the 3rd Radio-Technical Regiment that operates a wide range of radars to detect incoming threats, including Nebo-M and Podlet-K1. In the russian military, S-400 positions are also traditionally covered by short-range air defenses, such as Tor or Pantsir-S1 systems.
However, all of those systems could not detect a weapon, presumably a suicide drone, approaching the S-400 launcher. Moreover, there is even a video to confirm the result of the strike taken by a UAV which means the scout drone entered the operational range of russian sensors without getting noticed, too.
From another perspective, the issue might be not with russian surveillance itself but with Ukraine's capability to make a breach in russian air defenses in Crimea to help attack weapons reach their targets.
Read more: The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine: the Occupiers Are Flooding Ferries to Protect the Illegal Kerch Bridge
