At least eight warplanes belonging to the Russian military appear to have been damaged or destroyed after Ukraine targeted the Saky air base in Crimea, according to satellite images released on Wednesday, 10 August.
Russia, on the other hand, claims that no planes were damaged. It has admitted, however, that "several aviation munitions detonated" in a storage area at the facility, and that the attack killed one, wounded 14, and damaged many nearby houses.
"In just one day, the occupiers lost 10 combat aircraft: nine in Crimea and one more in the direction of Zaporizhzhia. The occupiers also suffer new losses of armoured vehicles, warehouses with ammunition, logistics routes," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his nightly address to the nation.
In a series of tweets, Eliot Higgins, founder and creative director of Bellingcat, an investigative journalism group specialising in fact-checking and open-source intelligence, concluded that the damage to Russian assets was significant.
"I can't think of a time Russia has lost this many air assets in one day in recent memory, and they have to be deeply concerned about Ukraine's ability to do similar strikes elsewhere, especially the Kerch Strait Bridge," Higgins opined.
(With inputs from Reuters and The Guardian.)
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