This is how the Ukrainians managed the mega-attack!

On Thursday, Ukraine had important progress to report on land: For the first time, tanks crossed Putin’s main defense line, the 200-kilometer-long “Surovikin Line” of armored trenches and dragon’s teeth. Behind the line, fierce Russian shelling awaited. But the first heavy equipment has overcome the defense line that took months to build.

Things are looking even better in the air at the moment: After Ukrainian forces reported three Russian warships and the elimination of significant parts of the air defenses in Crimea last week, they launched their biggest air attack so far in this war on Wednesday and Thursday.

“The headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet has been hit in an enemy missile attack,” Moscow-appointed Sevastopol city governor Mikhail Razvosheyev admitted Friday on the Telegram online service. Information about possible casualties was being examined, and debris had fallen near a theater.

But not only that: a Russian official also acknowledged an “unprecedented” cyberattack on Crimea. And: A soldier is missing, said the Russian Defense Ministry, which thus corrected its original report that a soldier was dead.

Initially, drone attacks were reported on the Krasnodar region and Putin’s resort of Sochi in Russia — these hit an oil depot, among other things, but in reality served mainly as a diversion.

Then they fired drones and British Storm Shadow missiles at the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed by Russia since 2014. And hit, too!

The abundance of footage of explosions leads military analysts to conclude that the Ukrainians must have fired more than 100 drones and up to two dozen missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry spoke of up to 75 drones intercepted and five Storm Shadow missiles intercepted.

Russia also fired missiles at Ukraine on Thursday: According to the Ukrainian General Staff, 36 of the 43 Russian projectiles were intercepted. However, seven missiles hit Ukrainian cities. They hit a power facility in Rivne, causing a blackout, a hotel in Cherkassy in central Ukraine, a radio facility in Kiev and possibly a military target in Drohobychi, the “Reporting from Ukraine” channel reported. The Russian channel “Rybar”, which has a reputation for providing reliable information, also reported this.

The main target of the Ukrainian air strikes was the Russian airfield in Novofedorivka near the town of Saky, where, according to Ukrainian intelligence, more than twelve fighter jets and an anti-tank missile system were parked.

Military intelligence also said that the Russian military airfield was also home to a training center for controlling drones. The attacks had “caused serious damage to the equipment,” it said.

In order to target the airfield, a large number of drone attacks in the region preceded, with the aim of overloading Russian air defenses and exhausting them even before the missile strikes.

Then the Neptune missiles came into action, causing heavy damage and also reportedly killing at least 30 Russian soldiers, according to some reports. However, the Ukrainian General Staff confirmed only that the army had carried out a combined attack on the airfield.

“The occupiers cannot feel safe on the occupied peninsula,” Ukrainian military intelligence SBU circles said.

The Russians have been responding to the increasingly heavy shelling for days — including by fleeing: First, they evacuated their submarines from Sevastopol. Now, according to “Reporting from Ukraine,” the attack landing ships are also leaving. This means that Putin’s Black Sea fleet has been considerably weakened.

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