On June 23, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) attacked military targets in occupied Crimea with US ATACMS missiles. According to the intercept, Russian soldiers deliberately shot down one of the missiles over a beach where hundreds of civilians were gathered. This fact is confirmed by the audio intercept that has already been published online.
Russian soldiers admitted their involvement in the downing of the missile, which resulted in the deaths of civilians. This act was a deliberate provocation by Russia to block the provision of ATACMS missiles to Ukraine. The Kremlin tried to use information and political pressure, but its plan failed.
Despite denials from the Russian authorities, the new intercept shows that the ATACMS missile was deliberately shot down over a beach in Crimea. The social network X (formerly Twitter) published an excerpt of an online conversation between Russian soldiers discussing the downing of the missile:
“They say it’s all over…What‘s all over?
They did a good job, in principle, shooting down missiles.
They shot down one missile right over the beach – ATACMS, this fucking cassette… Vasya, well, they shot it down as soon as it was detected.”
This dialogue confirms that the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not target the beach, but that Russian air defense forces did not take into account possible civilian casualties.
Four people died as a result of the fall of the missile debris, 151 people sought medical assistance, 82 of them were hospitalized.
This new Russian crime against the Ukrainian population of Crimea was part of a planned information and psychological operation. The Kremlin tried to block the provision of ATACMS missiles to Ukraine by using information and political pressure on the US leadership. The goal was to convince Washington not to allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike military targets on Russian territory.
However, Putin’s plan failed. Washington knows what really happened in Crimea and did not fall for manipulations. A representative of the White House National Security Council noted that the deaths of civilians is a tragedy that also applies to thousands of innocent Ukrainians killed by Russian troops since the beginning of the aggression.
