Ukraine attempted a missile strike on the Crimean Bridge on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. The attack also targeted several other Russian regions but did not result in any casualties or damage, the ministry added.
In a statement on Monday, officials said Ukraine had used four S-200 air defense missiles modified to strike ground targets. Facilities were targeted in Crimea – where the bridge linking the peninsula to mainland Russia was damaged by a bombing last year – as well as Rostov and Kaluga Regions in the southern and western parts of the country respectively.
According to Viktor Afzalov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Air Force, air defenses destroyed two S-200s, and another two were jammed by electronic warfare measures.
He noted that one missile targeted the strategic Crimean Bridge, and another was flying towards a military airfield in Rostov Region. Kiev fired another two projectiles at a military airport in Kaluga Region, both of which were deflected by electronic warfare means, Afzalov said.
Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff, tasked the military with organizing systematic work to identify storage, preparation, and launching sites for S-200 missiles and similar weapons, as well as laying the groundwork for staging preemptive strikes. He also ordered the military to “take additional measures to improve the protection of facilities from air strikes as soon as possible.”
The Defense Ministry’s statement comes after Sergey Aksyonov, the governor of Crimea, said on Sunday that Russian air defenses downed a missile in the vicinity of Kerch, not far from the Crimean Bridge.
The structure had already been damaged in a truck explosion last October, which also killed several people. Moscow described the incident as a “terror attack” masterminded by Ukrainian intelligence services, and responded by intensifying missile strikes on Ukrainian energy and military infrastructure.
While Kiev denied any responsibility in the aftermath of the blast, on Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Maliar acknowledged Ukraine’s role in the attack, listing it among the achievements of the country’s armed forces and saying that the strike sought to derail Russian logistics.