The Directorate of Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Stratcom of the Armed Forces of Ukraine) on the evening of Saturday, November 4, announced a “successful strike on the sea and port infrastructure” of the Zaliv shipyard. It is located in the city of Kerch in Russian-annexed Crimea. The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, appointed by Moscow, confirmed the fact of the shelling of the plant.
“In the area of the shipyard named after. Butoma in Kerch air defense worked, part of the fragments of downed missiles fell onto the territory of one of the dry docks. There were no casualties,” wrote Aksenov in his official Telegram channel called on residents of Crimea to “keep calm” and “trust only official sources of information.”
Meanwhile, it was from the Crimeans themselves that they learned about the shelling of the plant. They were the first to post in local public pages a video of the operation of air defense systems over the bay near the Crimean Bridge, on which they promptly launched a smoke screen, as recently they always do in the event of a threat of shelling by drones.
The author of one of these videos, published by the SOTA telegram channel, very emotionally described the situation in Kerch at the time of the shelling.
“Right, left, everywhere, ###! “Zaliv” was blown up, “Zaliv”! Look at the sound! It’s in a circle, it’s everywhere!” the man commented behind the scenes on the work of the air defense.
Attention! The video contains obscene language.
In addition, local residents who watched what was happening over the Kerch Strait and filmed everything on camera doubted the veracity of the version voiced by Aksenov.
“After the “fall of fragments” there is too much smoke at the plant,” noted subscribers of the local telegram channel “Crimean Wind”.
This was also hinted at by the Center for National Resistance of Ukraine, on whose Telegram channel a video of a fire at the Kerch Shipyard appeared. They also promised to post other photos and videos a little later, noting that they “have eyes and ears everywhere.”
According to the Crimean Wind telegram channel, during the shelling of the Zaliv plant, “the small missile ship Askold received at least three arrivals.”
“This carrier of the Kalibr cruise missiles is one of the newest and most modern ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It was laid down in 2016 at the Kerch shipyard “Zaliv”, and launched only in 2021. To understand, in addition to 8 launchers for the Caliber, it is armed with its own air defense system – the Pantsir-M air defense system and the Orlan-10 UAV complex for reconnaissance. Fat target,” wrote channel authors.
Officials in Russia have not yet commented on this information. No one provided any photographic or video evidence confirming damage to warships at the shipyard.
The Zaliv shipyard named after B. E. Butoma is located in Kerch, on the shores of the Kerch Strait, between two seas – the Black and Azov. It covers an area of more than 140 hectares and is a city-forming and one of the largest shipbuilding enterprises in Eastern Europe. The plant has two technological lines for the construction of ships and is known for the construction of military frigates.
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