Russia responds to Ukrainian strike on Crimea

Oleksandr Kovaleno, a military and political observer, shared his opinions on the matter.

He mentioned that Russian propagandists were incensed by Ukraine’s strike on temporarily occupied Crimea, where debris from Russian air defense systems fell onto people. Notably, remnants of Pantsir-S1 SAM missiles rained down.

It is crucial to note that Russian propagandists claim ATACMS missiles were used in Crimea. Yet, they attempted to shoot down these ballistic missiles with Pantsir-S1 SAMs, which are not designed for such tasks.

In their outraged speeches, figures like Maria Zakharova from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Razvozhayev avoided blaming the malfunctioning air defense systems. Instead, they focused on the timing, claiming that Ukrainian authorities targeted them on Trinity, a significant holiday, and labeling them as "satanists" for striking on such a bright holiday.

“This raises the question: what does satanism have to do with systematic military operations? The Russian government seems to have a fetish for significant dates. On June 22, they conducted a combined night raid and continued to terrorize Ukraine with sporadic strikes throughout the day, culminating in a deadly attack on Kharkiv. On Trinity, they launched another KAB strike on Kharkiv,” the observer remainds.

Russia's narrative shift was aimed at rallying public sentiment and deflecting attention from the military shortcomings, the expert believes.