Ukrainian forces have destroyed a Russian S-400 missile defense system in annexed Crimea, Kyiv said Wednesday.
“The explosion completely destroyed the system, its missiles and personnel,” Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said in a statement, which was accompanied by a video of the blast.
Without identifying the weapon that destroyed Russia’s S-400, the intelligence agency said the “explosion occurred” on the Tarkhankut Peninsula of western Crimea.
“Given the limited number of such systems in the enemy's arsenal, this is a painful blow to the occupiers' air defense system,” the GUR said.
If confirmed, it would be the third Russian S-400 system to be destroyed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine 18 months ago, according to a tally by the Dutch open-source intelligence project Oryx.
Russia’s military has not commented on the GUR’s report.
The S-400 Triumf surface-to-air system entered service in the Russian army in 2007.
