Ukraine destroyed Russia’s air defense node — Defense Express on Crimea strike 

He shared the information on Espreso TV.

"It's worth noting that the target intended to protect against such attacks was struck, which is significant. This suggests that more than two years of active confrontation with Russia have yielded insights into how to breach enemy air defenses and identify ‘no analog’ means that fail to meet their declared characteristics. As it turned out, there is a large list of such means, including Fundament-M (an automated control system for air defense units of the Russian army - ed.), whose main purpose is to coordinate air defense means, their joint actions to repel massive missile attacks with cruise and ballistic missiles," the military expert commented.

According to him, on April 17, observers, including Russians, reported in a state of panic about strikes involving both ballistic and cruise missiles. However, in such strikes, other means are invariably utilized, such as missiles designed to overwhelm air defense systems, like HARM.

"As for the ballistic missiles used, it could have been ATACMS, it could have been Ukrainian Neptunes or others manufactured as part of the missile program and sold in Ukraine. It was just such an enemy air defense node that was disrupted and destroyed, and most importantly, it was supposed to cover important facilities that provide enemy logistics on the southern front of our defense in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where the occupier receives supplies through Dzhankoi. Dzhankoi is also used for certain supplies to the occupying forces in Crimea, including missiles transshipped through the railway station. The strike on the military airfield in Dzhankoi systematically disrupts the enemy's capabilities, and this strike also shows that the enemy is losing air superiority here, creating conditions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces to gain this advantage with the further build-up of our air defense and missile defense capabilities, and as a final stage - the arrival of Western-type fighters, such as the F-16, in Ukraine," Valerii Riabykh summarized.

• In the temporarily occupied Crimea, on the night of April 17, explosions occurred near the Dzhankoi military airfield. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the Ukrainian Armed Forces for their successful work.
• On April 18, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Andriy Yusov, said that the operation to destroy the military airfield in Dzhankoi was important and large-scale.