Explosions in Crimea are making the Russian occupiers increasingly nervous. Although Ukraine has so far denied responsibility for the attacks, the Defense Ministry thanks a Russian vacationer who posted photos with an anti-aircraft system.
A Russian tourist may have inadvertently revealed the location of a Russian anti-aircraft defense position in Crimea. In any case, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense mockingly thanks the vacationer, who poses suntanned on the beach in front of heavy military equipment. “Maybe we’re being too harsh on Russian tourists… Sometimes they can be really helpful. Like this man taking photos of Russian air defense positions near Yevpatoria in occupied Crimea. Thank you and keep it up!” the ministry wrote Twitter. It also published a photo showing a man in swimming trunks in front of a Russian S-400 anti-aircraft system. Several explosions have occurred around Yevpatoria in recent days.
Czech journalist Mark Krutov also reported on the photo. For the Russian portal svoboda.org, he traced how Twitter users had reconstructed the exact position of the gun using landscape features, holidaymaker markings in other photos and satellite images. And it wasn’t difficult to determine the position, since further photos “were quite easy to find and the anti-aircraft systems are not hidden at all and are not far from the beach,” Krutov wrote in the post.
The explosive vacation post is apparently not an isolated case. According to Krutov, the Russian authorities have now alerted their compatriots to the danger. In his Telegram channel, the head of administration of the city of Sevastopol, Mikhail Rasvozhayev, announced on Sunday evening that the air defense had fended off “another object” on the way to the Belbek military airport. He added: “And let me remind you: take fewer photos and don’t upload videos of our air defense systems. And if you do, at least without reference to the location.”
There was only an explosion in Sevastopol on Saturday after Russian sources say a drone on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters was shot down by air defenses. In Crimea, which is part of Ukraine under international law, there have recently been repeated explosions, some of them heavy, including at an ammunition depot. Ukraine received this with satisfaction, but did not accept responsibility for the detonations.
