Russian ships and missile bases are obliterated across the peninsula

Today, the biggest news comes from Crimea. 

Here, Ukraine escalated its targeting of Russian air defense systems to the point the peninsula turned into Budanov’s Bermuda triangle, where all Russian air defense assets that enter vanish without a trace. This opened the sky and initiated a massive Ukrainian drone and missile campaign, obliterating Russian ships, bases, and most important missile launch stations. 

Recently, the balance in the war has shifted dramatically as Ukraine has finally broken the Russian air-defense umbrella over Crimea, with Ukrainian forces unleashing a wave of strikes using long-range drones and Flamingo missiles, hitting enemy military infrastructure across the peninsula and nearby Russian territory.

According to Ukrainian officials, the recent events are only the opening phase of a much larger campaign. Ukrainian engineers have reportedly discovered tactics capable of penetrating Russian air-defense layers, allowing Flamingo missile strikes to multiply sharply in the coming weeks. The result is a rapidly intensifying bombardment of assets that Russian command once believed were shielded by Crimea’s air defense network, one of the densest in the world.

The breakthrough followed a concentrated Ukrainian effort, with the first phase of the operation targeting multiple long-range radar sites. The Prymari special unit alone reported eliminating seven radar and air-defense assets in coordinated attacks, launching FP-2 drones at various radars meant to give Russians an early warning of what was coming.

With wider detection coverage taken out, the strikes progressively targeted short-range radars and their control centers around Yevpatoria and other core nodes in the Russian defense network.

Standalone air defense systems with integrated radars were targeted next, with Pantsir and Buk systems destroyed in several locations. Ukrainians were even able to position naval drones off the coastline, and launch FPV kamikaze drones directly at the Russian batteries. Critically, with Russian radar capabilities blinded, Ukrainians were able to destroy several S-300 and S-400 launchers themselves, meant to intercept Ukrainian long-range cruise and ballistic missiles flying into the peninsula.

Altogether, Ukrainian operations over the last month destroyed at least 31 radars and 15 air-defense platforms in Crimea alone.

The cumulative effect has been profound, and with key sensors and launchers gone, holes have opened in Russia’s defensive coverage. Ukrainian planners quickly exploited these gaps to establish open corridors for drones and missiles in the second phase of the operation, with Russian sources reporting repeated and near-daily Ukrainian raids involving large waves of drones approaching Crimea from multiple angles.

The situation has been worsened by Russia’s own communication problems, including reduced access to Starlink and disruptions to Telegram coordination channels, which have only compounded the complications in Russian the response.

At the same time, Nato reconnaissance aircraft, including British and French Awacs planes, have resumed patrols over the Black Sea, observing Ukrainian raids and helping map remaining Russian defenses for the various intelligence sharing initiatives. As a result, Ukrainian forces are now hunting not only large missile systems but also the mobile fire teams that serve as Russian’s last defensive layer against the overwhelming drone attacks.

Once achieved, Ukraine moved into the third phase of the operation, directly targeting Russian naval and missile infrastructure around Crimea and the Kerch Strait. Ukrainian drones destroyed a Russian Raptor patrol boat near Znamenskoye, while separate attacks struck oil-transport vessels in the Black Sea and damaged the Greek tanker Maran Homer near Novorossiysk during a strike with missiles. Ukrainian intelligence forces also carried out a complex operation in the Kerch Strait, disabling the railway ferry Slavyanin and damaging the vessel Avangard, both used to transport military equipment across. In the same raid, Ukrainian drones struck infrastructure at the port of Kavkaz, a crucial node supporting Russian logistics between mainland Russia and Crimea. 

Other targets quickly followed, as Ukrainian special forces hit a Bastion coastal missile division on the peninsula, while additional strikes destroyed two Okhotnik patrol ships near Inkerman. Long-range drones also destroyed a BK-16 landing craft and damaged two Be-12 maritime patrol aircraft at the Yevpatoria aviation repair plant. Finally, satellite imagery confirmed the destruction of an artillery ammunition depot, and explosions were reported at Saky airbase, one of Russia’s most important aviation hubs on the peninsula.

Overall, together these attacks resemble a systematic dismantling of Russia’s military infrastructure around Crimea. With more than forty air-defense assets removed and radar coverage degraded, Ukrainian forces have opened corridors through which drones and missiles can reach targets with increasing frequency. Russian analysts warn that the current wave of attacks may only be the beginning, as Ukraine continues to expand these breaches in the defensive shield. Crimea, once considered a fortified bastion of Russian power in the Black Sea, is rapidly becoming one of the most exposed and heavily targeted theaters of the war.