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industrial facilities. They also used missiles
to attack Russian command posts in occupied
territories. Perhaps the largest attack was
launched on Wednesday, April 17, in Crimea.
The target was the Dzhankoy airbase on
which the Ukrainians launched ATACMS long
range missiles. Once the information puzzle
was clarified, the destruction of an S-400
air defense system battery and presumably
a missile storage site was confirmed. The
destruction of aircraft and helicopters in this
attack was not confirmed.
The elimination of the S-400 battery at
Dzhankoy airport allowed Ukrainians to
conduct further attacks on Crimea. On Sunday,
April 21, Neptune missiles targeted the port of
Sevastopol, damaging the submarine support
vessel Kommuna. This is the oldest active ship
in the Russian fleet, commissioned during the
Tsarist era in 1915. Despite its age, it is very
important to the Russians. They have no similar
vessel in the Black Sea. It is a catamaran with
two hulls connected by a structure with cranes
for lifting objects from the seabed. It can also
launch its own deep-sea submersibles, which
can be used to rescue sailors from trapped
submarines. After the sinking of the cruiser
Moskva in 2022, Kommuna retrieved various
items from the wreck at a depth of 50 meters—
weapons, secret documents, and presumably
the bodies of crew members.
Downed Bomber
During the observed period, Russia lost
two aircraft in the air. On Wednesday, April 10,
a Mi-24 helicopter crashed into the Black Sea off
the western coast of Crimea, likely shot down
by friendly fire. All four aviators onboard—Ivan
Stepin, Aziz Shayakhmetov, Nikita Tokarchuk
from the 396th Mixed Aviation Regiment, and
Alexander Solovey from the 318th Independent
Mixed Aviation Regiment—did not survive.
A significant event was the downing of
a strategic bomber, the Tu-22M3, on Friday,
April 19. The aircraft crashed near Bogomolova in
the Russian Stavropol region. The Russian side
claimed it was due to a technical malfunction,
but there were reports of friendly fire.
The Ukrainian side asserted that the bomber
was hit and damaged by a modernized S-200
missile with a range of 350 km. After being
damaged, the Tu-22M3 attempted to return
to base but crashed later. Ukrainians also
reported that another bomber turned back
without releasing its deadly payload after the
first aircraft was hit. Video evidence shows the
burning bomber spiraling to the ground. All four
crew members ejected, but two did not survive:
Captain Andrey Kononov and Lieutenant Andrey
Grushanin, both from the 52nd Heavy Bomber
Regiment.
ARTICLES
The crash of a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber
on April 19 in the Stavropol region.
Two crew members died in the Tu-22M3 crash,
one of them was Captain Andrey Kononov.
The dismantled wreck of a Russian Mi-8MTPR-1 helicopter with tail number "Yellow 81".
Three MiG-29s and four Yak-40s were damaged on April
18 during an Iskander missile attack on Dnipro Airport.
However, the Yak-40s had been parked there since 2010,
and at least one MiG had also been immobile for several
months, likely a non-operational aircraft.
Another attack on Dnipro Airport
on April 20 destroyed one MiG-29
Another casualty of the Tu-22M3 crash
was Lieutenant Andrey Grushanin.
Debris of a Tu-22M3.
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