Russia moves to counter Ukrainian attacks on Crimea

Moscow has moved its most advanced air defence system to Crimea to protect the peninsula’s Kerch bridge, as Kyiv steps up its attacks in the area and inside Russia itself. The deployment of the road-mobile S-500 Prometheus, with a range of 370 miles, has been confirmed by Lieutenant-General Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Ukrainian defence intelligence directorate. The arrival in Crimea of this weapon system which was only supposed to be in full production in 2025 underlines the changing priorities adopted by Ukraine in the 28-month war. Judging by the year-on-year increase in attacks by Ukraine on Russian-annexed Crimea and inside Russia since Moscow’s invasion in February, 2022, the focus of the war is dramatically changing, and escalating, aided by the supply of longer-range weapons from the US, Britain and other European countries. In 2022, there were around 40 Ukrainian strikes on targets in Crimea and Russia, according to Ukrainian, Russian and western figures, the most dramatic of which was the sinking in May of the Moskva, the Black Sea fleet’s flagship guided-missile cruiser. The Kerch bridge was also attacked by a truck bomb in October. In 2023, the number of these strikes, involving aerial and naval drones, missiles and special forces sabotage raids, rose to more than 80, at least 22 of them in Crimea. In July, Kerch bridge was attacked by drone boats. So far this year there have been around 55 attacks in Crimea and inside Russia. This month, they have included a strike on a Russian S-300/S-400 air-defence complex in Belgorod, bordering Ukraine, using the US Himars artillery rocket weapon; a strike by armed drones, “destroying” a Russian Su-57 stealth fighter at a base in Akhtubinsk in southern Russia; and an attack on two troop and equipment ferries on the Russian side of the Kerch Strait, involving the US 190-mile-range Atacms ballistic missile system. With the delivery later this year of American F-16 fighter jets, supplied by European allies, Ukraine is already engaged in a series of missile and drone strikes on Russian S-300 and S-400 air-defence systems to try and reduce the threat they will pose to the combat aircraft. The deployment of the Russian S-500 air defence system in Crimea is clearly aimed at countering the strike power of the F-16s. After months of pleading by Kyiv, the US has agreed to deliver a second battery of up to eight Patriot anti-missile launchers to help Ukraine defend against Russian attacks on its cities and towns.