Ukraine made an unsuccessful attempt to attack three Russian regions with repurposed Soviet-era air defense systems on Sunday, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, adding that the barrage did not result in any casualties or damage.
The Russian military added that one of the missiles was meant to hit the Crimean Bridge, which was already targeted last year.
In a statement on Monday, the ministry said that Ukraine used S-200 air defense missiles, which were modified to strike ground targets to attack facilities on the Russian peninsula of Crimea, as well as Rostov and Kaluga Regions in the southern and western parts of the country respectively.
According to Viktor Afzalov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Air Force, air defenses destroyed two S-200s, and another two were jammed by electronic warfare measures.
He noted that one missile targeted the strategic Crimean Bridge, which links the eastern part of the peninsula with mainland Russia, and another was flying towards a military airfield in Rostov Region. Kiev fired another two projectiles at a military airport in Kaluga Region, both of which were deflected by electronic warfare means, Afzalov said.
Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff, tasked the military with organizing systematic work to identify storage, preparation, and launching sites for S-200 missiles and similar weapons, as well as laying the groundwork for staging preemptive strikes. He also ordered the military to “take additional measures to improve the protection of facilities from air strikes as soon as possible.”
The Defense Ministry’s statement comes after Sergey Aksyonov, the governor of Crimea, said on Sunday that Russian air defenses downed a missile in the vicinity of Kerch, not far from the Crimean Bridge.
The structure had already been damaged in a truck explosion last October, which also killed several people. Moscow described the incident as a “terror attack” masterminded by Ukrainian intelligence services, and responded by intensifying missile strikes on Ukrainian energy and military infrastructure.
While Kiev denied any responsibility in the aftermath of the blast, on Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Maliar acknowledged Ukraine’s role in the attack, listing it among the achievements of the country’s armed forces and saying that the strike sought to derail Russian logistics.
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