HISTORY

as per Turkey’s wish, will be used for the humanitarian help and reconstruction of the Ukraine.

Ukraine continues deploying the Bayraktar drones successfully

even though the Russians claim they keep destroying one after another. The latest example is the successful attack on the Russian tug

Vassily Bekh which, during the night of June 16-17, was delivering the

supplies and reinforcements to the Snake Island. On her voyage she

was hit by two Harpoon anti-shipping missiles. It was the very first

successful deployment of this rocket by Ukrainians. What was the

Bayraktar role during this mission? It recorded the whole action and

explosions of both rockets. It is of interest that it was able to shoot

the videos uninterrupted even though the tug carried the AA Tor on

board. Vassily Bekh was commissioned in January 2017. The tug was

57 meters long with the full displacement of 1670 tons. 26 sailors

formed its crew, and it could carry another 36 persons. The crew fate

is currently unknown.

Most recently the Ukrainian attacks by long-range artillery were on

the way to the ammunition depots and railway marshalling stations

in Donetsk used by Russians to supply the front units. Destroying

several of these large ammunition depots had a potential to significantly weaken the Russian supremacy in the artillery and curtail

the Donbas offensive. The Ukrainian AF took part in at least one of

these attacks successfully. The depot in the city of Khrustalnyi (Krasnyi Luch in Russian) in Luhansk area is located too far, around 80

km from the frontlines. Despite this fact on Thursday June 16, it was

destroyed.

For this mission the Ukrainians employed the Tochka-U ballistic rocket and at the same time launched a pair of Su-25 which flying close

to the ground evaded the Russian AA defense. It’s the proof how much

importance Ukrainians attributed to this target. They made sure to

have the backup if the first attack failed for some reason. In the end

the ammunition depot was hit by both the rocket and fighter-bomber

aircraft. It resulted in an enormous explosion followed by number of

secondary explosions of the artillery grenades which destroyed tens

of houses and cars in the vicinity of the depot. The similar situation

occurred after the ammunition depots were hit in Donetsk. The sepa-

A Serna-class landing craft recovered after sinking off the Snake Island.

The Bayraktar drone left quite a hole in it.

ratists claim that the Ukrainian shelling killed civilians but the most

damage comes from the secondary explosions of the depots located

in the stadiums or city industrial halls.

The Russian tugboat Vasily Bech was sunk by two Harpoon missiles while attempting to deliver supplies to Snake Island.

July 2022

INFO Eduard

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