Near Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, in the evening of August 18, explosions were heard at the military airfield “Belbek”, as reported by Censor.NЕТ with reference to Crimea.Realities:
“The first explosion in Sevastopol was heard at 22:00, the second at 22:35.
Several residents of Sevastopol and the Bakhchisarai district located near the city told about ‘the sounds of explosions and shooting.’ They all live a few kilometers from the military airfield “Belbek”. There is no official information from the Russian authorities about the explosions yet.”
The Institute for the Study of War in its report of August 18 outlined possible causes of the explosions:
“ISW cannot independently verify whether Russian air defenses shot down a Ukrainian UAV, or whether any UAV was present in Kerch or Belbek. A Russian social media user posted video claiming to be at Belbek on the evening of August 18, showing no apparent evidence of a strike there. Ukrainian forces will likely continue their campaign to strike Russian military targets in Russian-occupied Crimea to degrade Russian logistics capabilities and degrade Russian capabilities to sustain operations on the west bank of the Dnipro River, as ISW previously assessed. However, it is unclear at the time of publication whether the reported explosions are due to Ukrainian attacks or reconnaissance, poor Russian handling of military equipment, successful Russian air defenses, or nervous Russian defenders who are likely steeling themselves for additional attacks in areas that the Russian military had believed until now to be out of the range of Ukrainian forces.”
