Ukraine Strikes Russian Command Post and Military Unit in Crimea

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) on Thursday struck a Russian command post near the occupied city of Sevastopol in the afternoon and then made a separate strike on a military unit in Crimea.

Details of the strike were still emerging at press time.

The AFU said it hit a Russian command post at about 3 p.m. local time.

Meanwhile, Russian sources said their air defenses knocked out ten guided missiles over occupied Sevastopol during the afternoon, with fragments of artillery shells crashing down around the area, AFP reported.

Explosions and air raid sirens were heard in Crimea again on Thursday evening.

The AFP had described “the sound of projectiles whooshing overhead” in the afternoon, and air raid sirens are overheard in videos shared by social media bloggers in Crimea.  

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his New Year's address that the AFU would bring Ukraine’s “wrath” against Russian forces in 2024, following the large-scale aerial bombardment on Ukrainian cities by Russian forces over the holidays, the largest cities since the beginning of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian air defense was mostly able to repel these attacks and launched a counterattack aimed at some of the sources of the missile strikes located in Russia’s Belgorad region.

On Telegram, Air Force Commander, Mykola Oleshchuk, on social media “conveyed his greetings to the invaders in Crimea, saying that he expects the same ‘epic report’ from Sevastopol and Yevpatoria on Jan. 4 from enemy propaganda mouthpieces,” that Moscow announced after similar Ukrainian attacks on Jan. 2.

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