Russian forces try to launch terrorist attacks on occupied Crimea to divert attention from their war crimes - ISW

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shared the report.

In order to achieve their goal, the occupiers are making efforts to expose strikes on Russian military facilities in the occupied Crimea as acts of terrorism.

"Russian leadership and the Russian nationalist information space have become increasingly invested in framing recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian military assets in Crimea as acts of terrorism in order to shift the information narrative away from Russian violations of international law and calls on the West to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism," experts say.

The Institute noted that attacks on legitimate Russian military facilities are completely within the legal use of force and are not terrorist acts, and there is no evidence that these attacks were committed by extremists.