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On the evening of November 4, the Ministry of Defense confirmed a massive missile strike by Ukraine on the Crimean peninsula and revealed damage. Kiev has launched a large-scale attack on the Russian national holiday Day of People’s Unity in an attempt to gain more hype in the media.
On the afternoon of November 4, sirens sounded in various regions of the peninsula. The Sevastopol Bay and the Crimean Bridge were covered by the smokescreen. Russian air defense forces were actively repelling the attack. Local sources reported that Ukrainian forces targeted the Crimean Bridge with about two dozens of missiles. The local authorities confirmed damage to shipyard in the city of Kerch in the west of the peninsula. According to preliminary reports, wreckage of the downed missile fell in the area of dry docks.
In several hours, the Russian military revealed details of the attack and damage. The Defense Ministry clarified that the target was not the Crimean Bridge, but the Kerch shipyard named after Butoma.
In total, the facility was targeted with 15 cruise missiles and Russian air defense forces intercepted 13 of them. Two missiles managed to break through the defense. As a result of the attack, one of the missiles damaged a ship that was located at the repair plant. The Russian military did not clarify what ship was damaged. According to unconfirmed reports, the second missile hit the water near the plant.
There is no information about the victims.
Kiev also confirmed the attack on the Kerch shipyard. According to the commander of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military used French-made air-launched cruise missiles. These are the SCALP missiles, or the British Storm Shadow missiles.
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At the shipyard, among others, there were Russian small rocket ships of the project 22800 Karakurt, which are carriers of Caliber missile systems. Ukrainian sources claim that one of them was hit, presumably the Askold small rocket ship. Askold was not operational yet. It was transfered to the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2023 and it was likely passing some final repairs in Kerch.
The estimated cost of one small rocket ship of the project 22800 was about 2 billion rubles (about $ 21 million) in 2017.
One SCALP costs about $ 2.5 million. In total, French taxpayers payed about $ 45 million for the single Kiev’s attack, which is hard to be claimed successful. It is yet to be officially confirmed what ship was damaged but Kiev definately failed to achieve its propaganda goals. 13 out of 15 missiles is a relatively good result which once again confirmed weakness of NATO missiles.
