Ukraine claims to have destroyed Russian Kalibr cruise missiles in overnight drone attack on Crimea
On the evening of March 20, several explosions were heard in the city of Dzhankoy in the annexed Crimea. Later, power outage was reported in some areas of the city.
The Russian authorities of the Crimea and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced the attack of several drones on the city. The drones were allegedly shot down, but their wreckage damaged a house and a store. One person was injured. The Crimean authorities claim that the drones targeted civilian objects. The head of the Dzhankoy administration, Igor Ivin, confirmed that the city was attacked by drones, and drone debris was found on two streets.
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Russian Kalibr NK cruise missiles were destroyed in the explosions as they were transported by rail.
Kalibr NK is a missile designed for launches from ships. The range of such a missile is more than 2500 kilometers for land and 375 kilometers for sea targets," the Ukrainian Intelligence Directorate explained, noting that the "mysterious claps" continue the process of “demilitarization of Russia and prepare the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea for de-occupation”.
The adviser to the head of the annexed Crimea Oleg Kryuchkov denied Ukrainian reports. According to him, the railway and infrastructure are not damaged, trains are running on schedule. He also said that "the drones, which were shot down in the north of Crimea, targeted civilian objects."
However, the journalists of the ASTRA project found out that as a result of the strikes, the train depot, the station security building, the warehouse and fuel depot were damaged. And only the fifth of the damaged objects was, according to the project, an agricultural store on Perekopskaya Street, 51.
Adviser to the head of Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, published images of the drone wreckage. Trollface stickers could be seen on them.
The news outlet Radio Liberty recognized in the wreckage the Chinese drone SkyEye. Journalists pointed out that Ukraine had previously used SkyEye as loitering munition in attacks on the refinery in Novoshakhtinsk and on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.
According to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Dzhankoy administration has introduced a state of emergency in the city.