Ukrainian Forces Launch Combined Strike in Crimea: Air Defense and UAV Depots Attacked

The Ukrainian Navy, together with Special Operations Forces units, conducted a combined strike against Russian targets in temporarily occupied Crimea. First, FPV drones struck air defense, after which attack drones attacked UAV depots at the Saki airfield.

The video of the operation was published by the Ukrainian Navy.

The General Staff noted that as a result of the operation at Saki airfield, the enemy’s command and control center, storage facilities for Orion and Forpost attack UAVs, and several air defense facilities were destroyed.

According to the video, before the attack by the attack UAVs, Tor-M2 and Pantsir-S1 air defense systems covering the airfield were targeted using FPV drones.

At the same time, the Tor was a rare ‘Arctic’ modification of the M2DT, all elements of which are based on the DT-30PM-T1 two-link tracked transporter. These air defense systems are intended not only to cover Russian military units, but also to protect strategically important facilities in the Arctic region of the Russian Federation.

Only the 80th Arctic Motor Rifle Brigade of the Coastal Forces of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy was equipped with such air defense systems. As of 2020, the Russians had 12 Tor-M2DT air defense systems. Only two cases of destruction of such systems have been recorded, both in 2023 in the Kherson region.

It is not disclosed how the FPV drones were delivered to Crimea, but it is likely that maritime drones and carrier UAVs were used for this purpose.

After the FPV drones suppressed the air defense systems around the airfield, the attack drones, equipped with video cameras and a direct communication channel, attacked their targets.

The video shows the damage to the aviation command and control center. It also shows a hangar on the territory of the airport, where, according to the military, Orion and Forpost UAVs were stored.

The attack drones also hit a KamAZ-based ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun, which was probably trying to shoot down the attack drones and had to be suppressed.

As a reminder, in mid-November, a strike on the Kirovske airfield in temporarily occupied Crimea damaged part of the infrastructure related to the maintenance of Russian Orion attack drones.

These drones are used to monitor the coastal zone of Crimea, as well as to detect and destroy Ukrainian naval drones that regularly raid facilities in Crimea and Kuban.