Satellite images from Crimea show destruction after Kiev attack on weapons depot

Satellite images were released following a reported Ukrainian cruise missile attack on a Russian drone storage facility at Cape Fiolent in annexed Crimea.

The photos, dated April 11 and July 8, were taken by California-based global imaging company Planet Labs and published by US-funded media company Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The images “show the destruction of the alleged Shakhed/Geran ammunition depot (unconfirmed!) at Cape Fiolent in occupied Crimea by a Ukrainian attack on July 1,” said Mark Krutov, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, on X (formerly Twitter), sharing the before and after photos.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Crimea in an effort to recapture the Black Sea peninsula, which was annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014.

Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on July 2 that Kyiv’s armed forces had attacked an ammunition depot in Crimea the day before.

Meanwhile, Telegram channel Spy Dossier, which has over 50,000 subscribers and claims to have links to Russian intelligence, published a photo on July 2 saying Ukrainian missiles had hit a Russian Black Sea Fleet “object” at Cape Fiolent in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.

The translation for the unspecified “object” can mean both an item and a facility.

“The attack was carried out with cruise missiles of an unknown type. The target of the attack was a warehouse with the Shahed-136/Geran-2 drone,” the broadcaster said. “There is no information about personnel losses.”

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense by email and asked for a comment.

Crimea-based Telegram channel Crimean Wind shared the Planet Labs satellite images on Wednesday, saying the after photo shows that a building that housed a storage facility for Shahed drones is now “completely destroyed.”

The Washington-based nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security also obtained satellite imagery of the site and found there were conflicting reports about whether it was an ammunition depot or a warehouse storing Shahed drones.

“One of the buildings has completely collapsed,” the institute said in an analysis of the image published on Tuesday. “Notably, NASA satellites have not detected any fire in the area this week.”

“According to reports, the attack was carried out using an aircraft missile and the site was also known as abandoned military base No. 99375, which formerly belonged to the USSR Navy,” it said.

“Although Shahed missiles continue to be launched from other sites, official Ukrainian sources have so far not reported any launches from Yeisk or Cape Fiolent following the respective Ukrainian attacks on these sites,” the institute added.

The Russian military has made extensive use of Iranian-made Shahed drones in the war in Ukraine. Ukraine announced in December that Russia had sent more than 3,700 Shahed drones to Ukraine over the past 22 months.

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