Russia is likely placing military facilities near civilian areas in Crimea to try to deter further Ukrainian strikes, military analysts said.
The influential Institute for the Study of War reached the conclusion in an assessment on Sunday, citing a reported strike against Sevastopol, where Russia has its Black Sea Fleet headquarters.
On Sunday, Russia’s Ministry of Defence accused Ukraine of launching five American-made MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, also known as ATACMS, with cluster warheads on civilian infrastructure in Sevastopol.
Four ATACMS were shot down, it said, but the impact from a Russian air-defense interceptor caused one to deviate from its trajectory and its warhead to explode midair over the city.
Fragments of cluster munitions injured more than 20 civilians, including children, it said, adding that the US was partly to blame.
In a Telegram post on Sunday, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russia-installed governor of Sevastopol, said four people were killed, 151 sought medical help, and 82 were hospitalized as of 9 p.m. local time.
Russian and Ukrainian sources appeared to confirm the missile strike, with some claiming cluster munitions landed near civilians.
Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne said its sources heard explosions in the city of Yevpatoria.
Crimean Wind, a pro-Ukrainian group that monitors information in Crimea, posted footage that it said showed explosions in Yevpatoria and near Vytine.
Meanwhile, one Russian source claimed the attack hit the village of Lyubimovka, only kilometers away from beaches popular with vacationers and locals.
Placing potential military targets near civilian infrastructure is a strategy Russia has leveraged in the past, with the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and schools in occupied Ukraine used to shield Russian military equipment, the ISW reported.
However, in doing so, Russia is likely breaking its own International Humanitarian Law, which says that military command must refrain from placing military targets close to or in highly populated areas.
Neither the ISW nor Business Insider could independently verify if Ukrainian forces used missiles armed with cluster munitions.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this month, the ISW said that Ukraine’s sustained attacks against Russian air defenses in Crimea could make the peninsula untenable as a military staging ground.
Read the full article here
