The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zaluzhny, admitted for the first time on Wednesday that he had carried out missile attacks against Russian bases in the Crimea region, annexed in August, threatening to continue such operations.
Ukraine "has successfully carried out missile attacks on enemy military bases, including the Saki airfield," Zaluzhny wrote in an article published by the state-run Ukrinform news agency.
At the beginning of August, exposures could be observed at this Russian airfield located in Crimea, which caused one death and several injuries and destroyed, in particular, ammunition intended for military aviation.
Until now, Ukraine had not officially acknowledged responsibility for this attack, nor for another that hit an ammunition depot in northern Crimea a few days later.
"The task of the Ukrainian armed forces for 2023" is to continue "shifting hostilities" towards this peninsula, where Moscow has "large groups of troops" for its invasion, Zaluzhny added.
The Ukrainian commander-in-chief, who rarely speaks in the media, called on Ukraine's Western partners to send more long-range weapons.
The range of Russian cruise missiles reaches 2,000 km, while that of the Ukrainian forces does not exceed 100 km, Zaluzhny stated.
