The Ukraine war thread
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Sevastopol International Airport
Soviet military airfield[edit]
The airfield was first constructed by the Soviet Union in June 1941, during the third year of World War II. Initially it housed a military fighter aviation unit. Constructed without a hardened runway, after the war the airfield received a concrete runway, but remained exclusively in use by the military. During the second half of the 1980s, after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, the airfield was significantly increased and improved, as the airfield was to be used by him when travelling to the presidential dacha on the southern coast of the Crimea, near the cape of Foros. Subsequently, it was also allowed to use the airfield for civilian purposes.[1]
The original name of the airport comes from the Belbek river, in the south-west of Crimea. The airfield is located next to the coast, in the Nakhimovsky area of Sevastopol, north of the city center, close to the adjacent neighborhood Lyubimovka.
2002–2007: International airport
After July 2002, the airfield began to be used for civil aviation. In December 2002, the airport received a license for international flights. Between 2002 and 2007 over 2,500 flights were carried out, which transported about 25,000 passengers.
During 2007, civil flights were suspended again. However, during spring 2009 it was announced that resumption of air links was to commence in the near future. To date, the civil service has not started yet.
Military use of airport continued[clarification needed] throughout this period, being also a military fighter airbase. During 1996, the Su-15TM's were replaced by the Su-27, and until 2014 the 204th Tactical Aviation Brigade flying the MiG-29 was based there.
Russian military presence
On 28 February 2014, Ukraine's acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov claimed that the airport was blocked by Russian Military personnel, and unidentified armed men are patrolling the area. He said through his Twitter account that, "I can only describe this as a military invasion and occupation". The Russian Foreign Ministry refused to comment while a spokesman for the Russian defense ministry was not available for comment.
11 March 2014, a new website was established[4] by the military personnel to report directly, of current and former events in the airfield. According to the website data, there had been a fire in the airport on the military area (воинская часть, Military Unit Number, А-4515) where electrical equipment was stored, with some unknown soldiers guarding it.[4]
14 March 2014, Colonel Yuliy Mamchur made an appeal on YouTube, addressed to the Ukraine government, telling it should give letter orders to all the Ukrainian troops on the Crimean peninsula. In case he would not receive the orders, he claimed that the 204th tactical brigade was going to fight, even if they could not withstand the adversary.
The 204th tactical brigade had been deployed in Belbek since December 2007 in the military area number A4515 (воинская часть A-4515).[6]
After the 2014, a 38th fighter regiment of the 27th Mixed Aviation Division, flying Su-27s and Su-30s, was established at Belbek.
On 1 Oct 2022, series of explosions were heard
More here: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19977183/blast-rocks-russian-airbase-crimea-tourist-explosion/
The cause of the explosion, which sent sparks and plumes of smoke into the air, is currently unknown.
But according to the Russian-appointed head of occupied Sevastopol, the explosion was caused when on board munitions detonated on a military aircraft that overshot the runway at Belbek airport.
There were no immediate reports of missile strikes on the plane or airport by Ukraine...
“According to information from rescuers, during landing the plane skidded off the runway and caught fire.
“The fire brigade is currently on the scene. Please remain calm.”
Smoke from the inferno plane was visible from different areas of the city which is the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Crimea has been targeted previously by Ukrainian special forces hit squads, according to reports.
The governor said later: "The aircraft went beyond the runway during landing, and there was a partial explosion of ammunition.
" The pilot managed to evacuate.
"The fire was quickly extinguished and the airfield was not damaged."
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Don't know if it's true of not, but someone posted on Twitter that Putin signed a declaration exempting Lyman from the annexation. That sounds like a desperate ploy for negotiations.
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Don't know if it's true of not, but someone posted on Twitter that Putin signed a declaration exempting Lyman from the annexation. That sounds like a desperate ploy for negotiations.
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More:
"It can still get worse for Putin and for Russia. And even the use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield won't change this at all," Petraeus said.
Still, he said the nuclear threat must be taken "seriously."
Karl asked him if the use of such weapons would require the U.S. to directly intervene in the conflict with NATO.
Petraeus said a response might see the U.S. and its NATO allies "take out every Russian conventional force that we can see and identify on the battlefield" in Ukraine, the contested region of Crimea that Russia annexed in 2014 and ships in the Black Sea.
"It cannot go unanswered. But it doesn't expand -- it's not nuclear for nuclear. You don't want to get into a nuclear escalation here," Petraeus said. "But you have to show that this cannot be accepted in any way."
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Hay @Renauda !
You still have contacts "over there," right?
What's the sense of the "regular people?"
When this started, you said it was divided in threes: supportive, indifferent and opposed.
Has that changed?
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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Hay @Renauda !
You still have contacts "over there," right?
What's the sense of the "regular people?"
When this started, you said it was divided in threes: supportive, indifferent and opposed.
Has that changed?
Hay @Renauda !
You mistake me for the real Renauda. An equine. She was into hay and oats. But not too much of the latter - Arabian through and through.
To answer your question. All my Russian contacts are against the special operation and have therefore gone to ground so to speak on discussing it openly. They are however worried as to what is next - they fear Stalin’s ghost in the wings for them.
Ukrainian contacts on the other hand are cautiously optimistic but recklessly vengeful.
