[imagesource: Twitter / @DefenceU]
The war in Ukraine is no laughing matter.
On the ground, the battle rages and the same is true for social media.
Misinformation and disinformation run rampant and if the opportunity presents itself to get a little mocking in, don’t let it pass.
That’s certainly the approach taken by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence after an airbase in the occupied peninsula of Crimea was devastated in an attack.
On Tuesday, reports Newsweek, the Saky air base was rocked by at least 12 explosions. Satellite images later showed extensive devastation across the site:
Huge explosion at the military airport in Novofedorivka in Russian-occupied Crimea. About 200km (over 120 miles) from the frontline.pic.twitter.com/8POh6yNhmq
— Ostap Yarysh (@OstapYarysh) August 9, 2022
State of Emergency declared in Crimea as people are stuck in traffic trying to get out. Russians had 8 years to leave after their illegal occupation. Russia has scrambled jets to Kherson but if it was ATACMS, the HIMARS/MLRS are long gone
pic.twitter.com/pRRm1SFCNh
— CJ (@CasualArtyFan) August 9, 2022
Footage of the massive strike on Saki airfield in Crimea, more than 200km from the front line. Beach-goers panicking as war returns to the peninsula annexed from Ukraine in 2014. pic.twitter.com/Lh73W2PVOE
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) August 9, 2022
Crimea has been a long-running source of tension between Ukraine and Russia, with things really escalating in 2014:
Russian troops seized Crimea in 2014, after Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, was deposed in the Maidan Revolution.
The peninsula was later annexed following a referendum, which was not recognized as legitimate by independent election experts.
The Russian Government encouraged tourists to visit Crimea after the annexation, hoping to turn it into a popular beach destination as it had been under the USSR.
Footage of holidaymakers fleeing the beach was just too good for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence to pass up.
It’s no coincidence that the 1983 hit from British girl group Bananarama, ‘Cruel Summer’, was chosen as the soundtrack:
Unless they want an unpleasantly hot summer break, we advise our valued russian guests not to visit Ukrainian Crimea.
Because no amount of sunscreen will protect them from the hazardous effects of smoking in unauthorised areas.
Bananarama pic.twitter.com/NnWnpZqMhR
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 11, 2022
I suggest any follow-up video goes with the ‘Crimea River’ angle, using Justin Timberlake’s song as the backing track.
That footage of the upset woman leaving Crimea is taken from this viral video:
THREAD This video shows a Russian occupant who leaves Crimea after yesterday’s attack. She says: “I don’t want to leave Crimea, Alushta. It is so amazing here. We got used to living here. We lived like it is our own. We felt like at home here”. /1 pic.twitter.com/Z4ShZPkp9D
— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) August 10, 2022
In an address on Tuesday evening following the explosions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country will retake Crimea.
The Guardian reckons Ukraine has certainly made meaningful inroads:
The satellite images from the Saky airbase in occupied Crimea do not lie. Nine Russian fighter jets were estimated to have been destroyed – though the true figure could be greater…
It amounts to perhaps a fifth of all recorded Russian combat aircraft losses in the war in Ukraine, now 47 as counted by analysts at Oryx, and while Moscow’s air force has dozens more fighters in its arsenal, the scale of the success and its immediate propaganda value cannot be overestimated…
Analysis shows the most likely scenario is that the strike was carried out from short range, possibly using a kamikaze drone.
A long-range missile strike can’t yet be ruled out, but footage of the explosions has shown little evidence that this was the case.
There’s a reason the Ukrainian government is trumpeting the success of the strike:
Russia’s public may have a different perception of the war in Ukraine, but occasionally news of setbacks filters through. The destruction of warplanes at Saky will rank with disasters such as the sinking of the cruiser Moskva in April or the estimated loss of more than 70 armoured vehicles in the failed river crossing at Bilohorivka in Donbas in March. Word of mouth from those fleeing will amplify the impact.
A retaliatory attack from Russia may well be on the cards.
170 days since the invasion kicked off and we are nowhere nearer to a conclusion.
