ATACMS would have caused more devastating damage: expert on Russian missile debris falling in Sevastopol

He said this on Espreso TV.

"First of all, the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula has been a war zone since 2022. Many Russians visiting Crimea during that time witnessed this, as it was when the famous meme of 'cotton' (referring to explosions in the occupied territories of Ukraine and Russia) emerged. Incidents of such 'cotton' in Crimea have been increasing. And the fact that it is an occupied territory, that Russians cross the border of Ukraine illegally through the Kerch Bridge is one legal matter. There must be some kind of understanding that something can strike and kill here, right? However, in this case, which occurred in Sevastopol, there is a very interesting point. The Russians have not published any evidence that any Ukrainian missile was used," emphasized Kovalenko.

According to him, only a single photo was published showing what fell on the heads of the Russians who were on the beach at the time. The remains in the photo can be identified as parts of a 9M330 anti-aircraft guided missile from the TOR-M2 anti-aircraft missile system, which has a short range of 15 km.

"This is a Russian short-range system and it was a Russian missile. It is unknown where it was fired, what it was launched at. The Russians claimed that the Ukrainian side used ATACMS. However, if ATACMS was used, then prove it. Where are the relevant elements of this missile that, relatively speaking, fell on the beach? And if we are talking about ATACMS and how many people were there, it would have been a bloodbath, not the number of dead and wounded that the Russians claim. Because ATACMS is a very powerful weapon that destroys a company completely when the Russians are lining up for an award somewhere in the Luhansk region. ATACMS hits there and the company is gone. So, a Russian 9M330 anti-aircraft guided missile fell," the military and political observer noted.

Kovalenko added that recently a Russian K-29 helicopter was shot down in Crimea, and Russia openly stated that it was shot down by their air defense system.

"That is, either their friend-or-foe system is not working, or the system is starting to malfunction in general, or the situation is so nervous among the operators of these systems that they are already panicking about some threat that is approaching them, so they launch missiles unexpectedly. And this missile, when it did not find its target, triggered a self-destruct system and fell on the heads of the Russians. This is what happened," the analyst summarized.

• On June 23, Russians complained about the alleged sounds of explosions in different parts of Sevastopol. Russia claimed that air defense shot down 4 ATACMS missiles and there are 2 dead.
• Dmytro Sniehyriov, a military expert, noted that the Russian S-400 air defense systems shoot down targets at a distance of up to 60 km, and that the missile strike over the beach in Sevastopol was a deliberate provocation by the Russian side.