Just a week ago Ukraine was telling them to go home, but now they’re thanking one Russian tourist in Crimea after he helped give away the location of vital air defences.
‘Maybe we’re being too hard on Russian tourists – this man has been really helpful,’ the Ministry of Defence wrote in a tongue-in-cheek Twitter post today.
The message was accompanied by a picture of a chubby elderly man in Speedo shorts standing on a beach with a Russian S-400 anti-air system in the background.
It was uploaded to social media site VKontakte – Russia’s equivalent of Facebook – over the weekend, complete with geolocation data.
A Russian tourist who took photos of himself standing alongside an S-400 anti-air battery in occupied Crimea has helped identify its location after posting the images online
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence tweeted the image today, sarcastically thanking the man for his ‘good work’ in helping them to track the battery
That allowed internet sleuths to locate the anti-air battery – which is supposed to be Russia’s most-sophisticated – to a salt flat near the city of Yevpatoriya.
The location tallies with reports of activity by anti-air systems in the area at the weekend by the Russian governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev.
It also tallies with other distant images of the same battery taken in late July and also uploaded to Russian social media.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence seems to have taken not of the location, sarcastically telling the Russian man: ‘Thank you and keep up the good work!’
The fate of the anti-aircraft battery is currently unknown.
But it comes after a series of explosions across Crimea targeting Russian airbases and ammo dumps that Ukraine has taken credit for.
Oleksii Reznikov, the defence minister, said at the weekend that a ‘resistance force’ working in tandem with Ukrainian special forces was responsible for the blasts.
Ukraine has been carrying out strikes in Crimea that have devastated Russian forces there, including blasts at Saki airfield that took out half the Black Sea fleet’s combat jets (pictured)
Ukraine has also claimed responsibility for explosions that took out a Russian ammo dump near the city of Dzhankoi and damaged another airfield at Gvardeyskoye
One all-but wiped out Saki airfield, which was being used by the airborne arm of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, taking out half of their combat jets.
Another destroyed an ammo dump near the city of Dzhankoi, a third damaged an airfield at Gvardeyskoye, and a fourth hit the headquarters of the beleaguered Black Sea Fleet on Sunday.
Russia attempted to play down the airfield blast as the result of an ‘accident’ but did admit the Dzhankoi explosion was ‘sabotage’, though it didn’t name a culprit.
Volodymyr Zelesnky said amidst the explosions that Crimea is Ukrainian soil, and vowed that Russian forces occupying it since 2014 would be driven out.
‘This Russian war…began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – with its liberation,’ Zelensky said in a speech on August 10.
Ukraine says it aims to drive Russian forces off all its territory, and not just the land it has taken since the current war began on February 24.
Zelensky’s aides say the true war aim is to take back all territory within Ukraine’s internationally recognised border, including land taken in the 2014 war.
So far, the military has shown only a limited ability to re-take land from Russia – though have succeeded in behind-the-frontlines strikes on rail and road networks.
An explosion at the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters at the weekend has also been credited to a Ukrainian drone, amid a fight-back against Russia in the south
Ukraine has also been striking Russian command posts and ammo dumps in the hopes of forcing a retreat by cutting Putin’s men off from supplies.
Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Command, suggested to the Wall Street Journal at the weekend that Russia’s vulnerable logistics are its best shot at victory.
Ukraine will not be able to out-match Russia in terms of raw troops numbers, vehicles or firepower – despite mobilising its population and getting supplies from the West, she conceded.
But, by using the weapons and troops it does have to maximum effect, she believes it is possible to defeat the superior enemy.
‘There are more of them. They have more weapons. They’re more powerful in the air,’ Ms. Humeniuk conceded.
‘So we have to find a way to beat them under these conditions. It’s not easy, but it’s doable.’