Ukraine trolls sobbing Russian tourists seen fleeing in terror after Crimea airbase blast

Ukraine has today brutally trolled sobbing Russian tourists, seen fleeing in terror after huge explosions laid waste to an air base in Crimea, with a video advising them not to visit the peninsula unless they want an ‘unpleasantly hot summer break’.

Footage posted online earlier this week from the Russian occupied territory showed beachgoers running as huge mushroom clouds rose into the air in the distance.

The blasts – that have been credited to Ukraine’s special forces – hit the Novofedorivka base on Tuesday. The base is close to a beach popular with Russian tourists visiting the peninsula which was annexed by Vladimir Putin’s forces in 2014.

While authorities in Kyiv are yet to officially take credit for the attack, the video mocked the Kremlin’s claim that the explosions were the result of an accident on the base caused by a ‘violation of fire safety requirements.’

When posting the video to social media on Thursday, Ukraine’s defence ministry wrote: ‘Unless they want an unpleasantly hot summer break, we advise our valued Russian guests not to visit Ukrainian Crimea. Because no amount of sunscreen will protect them from the hazardous effects of smoking in unauthorised areas.’

They 35-second video, created in the style of a tourism advert, addresses Russian tourists. ‘You had a few options this summer,’ bold purple text says.

The video then suggests alternative destinations, including Dubai’s ‘Palm Jumeirah Beaches’, ‘Antalya Resorts’ in Turkey and ‘Cuban Cabanas’.

Instead, the video says, ‘You chose Crimea. Big mistake.’ In a stark contrast from the stunning images of the previously listed tourist destinations, the video suddenly shows the huge explosions that rocked Crimea on Tuesday.

It then shows footage of tourists fleeing a nearby beach as the blasts are seen in the distance, with the text again appearing on screen saying ‘Time to head home’.

One woman, who was filmed in floods of tears as she was driven away from Crimea this week after the attack, is also shown in the video. ‘I don’t want to leave Crimea, Alushta at all,’ she tells the camera. ‘How cool it is here’.

To add insult to injury, the video used Bananarama’s ‘Cruel Summer’ as a soundtrack.

The video ends with blue and yellow text – the colour of Ukraine’s flag – on screen saying ‘Crimea is Ukraine’.

Meanwhile, satellite pictures released on Thursday showed the devastation at the Russian air base, hit in the attack that suggests Kyiv may have obtained new long-range strike capability with potential to change the course of the war.

Pictures from independent satellite firm Planet Labs showed three near-identical craters where buildings at Russia’s Saki air base had been struck with apparent precision.

The base, on the southwest coast of Crimea, suffered extensive fire damage with the burnt-out husks of at least eight destroyed warplanes clearly visible.

Russia has denied aircraft were damaged and said explosions at the base on Tuesday were accidental. Ukraine has not publicly claimed responsibility for the attack or said exactly how it was carried out.

After the blasts, Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko also gleefully shared the footage of the woman crying on Twitter, commenting: ‘Do you think Russians will finally begin to understand that it’s really a war?’

The demographics of the peninsula’s population changed rapidly following its 2014 annexation.

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tartars – an ethnic group indigenous to the peninsula – moved out of Crimea amid complaints of intimidation and poor treatment under a pro-Russian government.

Others who renounced Russian citizenship were classified as foreign citizens and were not permitted to spend more than 180 days per year in Crimea – and were subject to strict migration legislation which meant they could be forcibly deported. 

Many more ethnic Russians immigrated to the region, particularly as Russia’s military set about reinforcing its presence there and establishing the headquarters of its prized Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.

However, after the explosions at the Novofedorivka military airbase killed one, injured 14 and destroyed 10 Russian aircraft, Crimea’s highways were backed up by huge traffic jams as fearful residents attempted to evacuate.

Gerashchenko claimed on Wednesday the jams stretched for more than 60 miles.

An anonymous official told the Washington Post that Tuesday’s blasts came as the result of a special forces operation, despite claims that long-range missiles could have been used. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile vowed to ‘liberate’ the peninsula previously part of Ukraine, but annexed by Russia in 2014 despite international condemnation and Western sanctions.

Zelensky did not directly mention yesterday’s explosions, the cause of which has not yet been officially confirmed, but spoke with conviction as he declared: ‘Crimea is Ukrainian, and we will never give it up… The Russian war against Ukraine and the whole of free Europe must end with Crimea and its liberation.’

The blasts rang out around 3:30pm local time Thursday afternoon at the Russian-held Novofedorivka military airbase in Western Crimea, which is located within sight of a popular beach.

Videos circulating on the Telegram messaging app showed dozens of shocked beachgoers watching trails of smoke snaking into the sky from the base before hastily evacuating the shore.

Other clips showed the charred remains of a Russian fighter jet and the smouldering wreckage of several cars on torn up tarmac destroyed in the devastating explosions. 

Russia’s Defence Ministry denied the base on the Black Sea had been attacked by Ukraine, instead declaring there had been a catastrophic aircraft munitions detonation, but editor-in-chief of Russian news outlet RT, Margarita Simonyan, tweeted that the explosions were caused by ‘sabotage’.

Ukrainian social networks meanwhile were abuzz with speculation that the base was destroyed by long-range missiles fired by Ukraine’s military after one Ukrainian official speaking on condition of anonymity told the New York Times that the nation’s armed forces launched the attack.

‘This was an air base from which [Russian] planes regularly took off for attacks against our forces in the southern theatre,’ the official said, adding that ‘a device exclusively of Ukrainian manufacture was used’ to carry out the attack.

This sentiment was echoed by Viktor Andrusiv, a political scientist and former adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, who wrote on Telegram: ‘As you can understand – missiles with a range of 200-300km are already in service with us and are being used in our country. 

‘The explosions… at the airfield in Novofedorivka in Crimea, are public proof of this.’

US systems so-far supplied to Ukraine do not have the range to hit the airbase from territory occupied by Kyiv’s forces. But some observers have speculated that the ATACMS missile system could be responsible for the strike. 

The Biden administration has not officially supplied the system, which has a range of up to 190 miles – and could strike the base from mainland Ukraine.

Videos of Russians fleeing the site of the blasts came as the regional administrators of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, currently under Russian occupation, said Russian families there had ‘started to panic’ after Ukrainian armed forces attacked two key bridges used by Putin’s troops as supply routes.

‘Because of these events, the mass exodus of the families of the Russian military who lived in Kherson began,’ the statement read. 

Both the Kakhovka and Antonivka bridges – two large crossings east of the occupied centre of Kherson which traverse the Dnieper river and allow Putin’s troops in Kherson to receive vital supplies – were badly damaged in a series of Ukrainian strikes. 

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and has occupied the territory ever since despite widespread condemnation from much of the international community. 

If the airbase was in fact struck by the Ukrainians, it would mark the first known major attack on a Russian military site in Crimea since Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine on February 24. 

Iryna Vereshchuk, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, posted on Facebook: ‘Today’s explosions in Novofedorivka are another reminder of who is Crimea. Because it is Ukraine.’

But an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Ukraine is not taking responsibility for the explosions.

Mykhailo Podolyak, when asked by the Dozhd online television channel whether Kyiv was taking responsibility, replied: ‘Of course not. What do we have to do with this?’

Novofedorivka is located more than 130 miles from the nearest part of mainland Ukraine not occupied by Putin’s troops, and Ukrainian authorities have not officially taken responsibility for the blasts.

Russian’s defence ministry denied the explosions were caused as a result of incoming missile fire, claiming: ‘Aircraft ammunition detonated at the ”Saky” airfield near the village of Novofedorivka at a rubble storage site.

‘No aviation equipment at the airfield was damaged. Measures are being taken to extinguish the resulting fire and investigate the cause of the explosion.

‘According to the report from the site, there was no fire impact on the collapsed ammunition storage area at the airfield.’