Putin announced the start of permanent patrols of Russian aviation equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in the Black Sea
Russia has already deployed an aircraft to Crimea with MiG-31 fighters to patrol the Black Sea, despite the risk of being hit by long-range missiles from Ukraine, such as the American ATACMS, which recently hit two Russian air bases in southern and eastern Ukraine.
An open-source intelligence (OSINT) analyst, MT Anderson, published on the social network the Russian Belbek air base in Sevastopol, where he introduced at least four MiG-31s ​​that were not there before
Three days later, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, announced the beginning of permanent patrols of Russian aviation equipment. Kinzhal hypersonic missiles in the Black Sea, which would also allow Moscow to control the Mediterranean. The MiG-31 will be equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which “have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers,” according to Putin.
“I think Russia is taking a big risk when it redeploys its MiG-31s,​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ which is a good target for our unmanned systems and guided cruises. missiles,” said the Defense Express analyst. I was sick of Zugurets al Ukrainian television channel Espresso.
The spokesperson of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuri Ignat He stated the other day that Russia is using about 40 of its warplanes in Ukraine and that the fact that it deployed the MiG-31 in Belbek “is not new.” He recalled that more than one airfield used by Russia had been attacked by Ukrainian forces and warned that they would continue to work to “clean up Russia’s dirt.”
The most recent Ukrainian attack against an air base in Crimea took place at the end of September, when Russian anti-aircraft defenses intercepted a missile precisely in the area of ​​Belbek. Also in the same month, Ukrainian intelligence claimed responsibility for an attack by drones and Nepton cruise missiles against the Saki military airfield, further north. Also in January, two drones were shot down near Belbek.
However, the most notorious Ukrainian attack against Russian air bases in Crimea so far took place in August 2022 at Sak airport. Satellite images published later showed the destruction of at least eight Russian planes.
Constant Ukrainian attacks forced Russia to move its planes, but the return of MiG-31 to Crimea happened even though on Tuesday they were hit by two American long-range ATACMS missiles. Russian planes in the occupied cities of Berdiansk (south) and Lugansk (east), both 100 and 85 kilometers, respectively, from the front.
In principle, the ATACMS, which was launched in Kyiv on Tuesday, has a range of 300 kilometers, but Ukraine would have received the revised 165 kilometers, so Belbek is in principle out of range from the Ukrainian-controlled city of Jerusalem, where it is 245 kilometers in a straight line.
However, past attacks have shown that Ukraine has the means to attack Russian air bases, either with drones or Neptune missiles, at a distance of about 280 kilometers. Instead, the Shadow of the Storm The British had a range of 250 kilometers.
British military intelligence said today that the announcement of patrols using Kinzhal-equipped MiG-31s ​​​​​​​​​​​is in any case “in line with typical Russian rhetoric aimed at a domestic audience, which calls the West aggressors and at the same time frames Russia’s activity as necessary for the defense of the State”. He also believes that Putin wants to demonstrate that Russia is capable of producing and operating newly developed weapons.
Meanwhile, at the front, the activity of Russian troops near the town of Avdivka in the eastern province of Donetsk has decreased slightly, although they continue to “progress”, a Ukrainian military spokesman said today.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted today that Russian forces launched a “renewed offensive” near Avdivka on October 20 and made little progress, “indicating that the military command of Russia remained committed to offensive operations in the area despite heavy losses in material and personnel.
