Civilians in Crimea become victims of russian air defense, not missile - ISW

Military experts who analyzed the data on the missile strike on Crimea concluded that the civilian casualties were the result of russian air defense and not the targeting of the missile.

This is stated in the ISW report.

Ukrainian officials recently said that russian forces have reduced the volume of military traffic across the Kerch Strait Bridge, likely due to efforts to create logistics lines connecting the russian mainland to occupied Crimea through the occupied southern districts of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions. However, the bridge across the Kerch Strait is likely to remain important for supporting the russian occupation of Crimea.

Analysts say long-range Ukrainian strikes on the bridge across the Kerch Strait would cut a vital line of communication for russian forces based in occupied Crimea and would likely complicate their ability to maintain an occupation and base on the peninsula.

Destroying the bridge would force the russian military to rely on a long route along the northern coast of the Sea of ​​Azov and increase the vulnerability of Ukrainian forces along the main russian demarcation line.

"The information operation of the Kremlin, which links the events in Dagestan and Crimea, is senseless, if only because the casualties among the civilian population in Crimea were the result of russia's interception of a missile flying in the direction of Crimea, and not a deliberate Ukrainian decision to target," the report says.

The russian Ministry of Defense admitted that the russian anti-aircraft interception system caused the Ukrainian missile to deviate from its flight path and explode in Sevastopol.

An unnamed US official also told Reuters that russian forces were able to intercept an ATACMS missile aimed at a russian launcher, causing the missile to explode and litter a Sevastopol beach with shrapnel.

Experts add that russian officials have also not provided any evidence to support their claims about the involvement of Ukraine or the United States in the terrorist attack in Dagestan.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on June 23, powerful explosions rang out in the temporarily occupied Crimea. The "governor" of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, announced the "attack" and the alleged work of the Air Defense Forces. Propaganda publications wrote that Crimea was allegedly attacked with ATACMS missiles.

Meanwhile, russian military bloggers are actively criticizing the russian Ministry of Defense and the occupation authorities in Crimea for their failure to prevent the attack on Sevastopol on June 23 and to adequately protect the civilian population.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon commented on Ukraine's strikes on Crimea.