Kyiv: The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, on Wednesday for the very first time has acknowledged the fact that Ukraine had carried out missile strikes that hit Russian military bases in annexed Crimea.
As per reports, Zaluzhnyi mentioned that, Ukraine has “successfully carried out missile strikes on enemy army bases, including Saki airfield.”
Major shelling at the Saki air base in Crimea last month, which left at least one person dead and destroyed the military aviation hardware, has been explained by Moscow as an accident.
But analysts have stated that satellite imagery pointed to a likely attack by the Ukrainian military, with no public acknowledgement by Ukraine officials at that time.
Ukraine’s army sarcastically made a comment on Russia’s “technical difficulties”, stating they may have been caused by smokers in unauthorised regions.
Zaluzhnyi called as “successful” the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces to “physically transfer fighting” to the territory of Crimea in recent few weeks.
Russia uses the peninsula as a major base to attack Ukraine after Moscow launched the invasion in February, but Crimea has rarely been targeted.