Tourist in Crimea accidentally exposes Russian military position in shirtless vacation photos
A hapless tourist has inadvertently given over key information about Russia to Ukraine’s military.
The man posted a photo of himself posing in his swimsuit at a beach in the Yevpatoria Salt Lake next to the Black Sea coast in Crimea.
He was seemingly unaware of the consequences of his actions though, as military vehicles shown in the shot behind him gave away the positioning of Russia’s “active” S-400 air defense systems.
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine made a stinging post, mocking the man for his mistake.
“Maybe we are being too hard on Russian tourists.
“Sometimes they can be really helpful. Like this man taking pictures at Russian air defense positions near Yevpatoria, in occupied Crimea.
“Thank you and keep up the good work!”
Online journalists were quick to geolocate the photo to a location where Russian forces were seen arriving on July 20.
Russian-appointed governor of annexed Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozzhaev, promptly issued a warning to Russian tourists on Telegram.
“I remind you: Try to shoot fewer photos and do not upload videos of how our AD works. If you are filming or taking pictures, at least don’t reference to the area,” he wrote.
Russia invaded and later annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 with a dubious referendum where 97 percent of participants voted for integration into the Russian Federation.
The move was deemed illegal by the international community, with the United Nations General Assembly adopting a resolution that confirmed it recognized the “territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders”.
Russia launched a multi-pronged invasion of Ukraine in February, with forces based in Crimea taking part in the offensive.
Fears of new annexations
Meanwhile, Russia could begin announcing referendums designed to formalize its control of occupied parts of Ukraine as soon as this week, a senior White House official said.
The United States has learned “that Russian leadership has instructed officials to begin preparing to hold sham referendums” in Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and “particularly” Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
“These referendums could begin in a matter of days or weeks. In fact, we could see a Russian announcement of the first one or ones before the end of this week,” he said.
“Since they obviously are having trouble achieving geographic gains inside Ukraine, they are trying to gain that through false political means,” he said.
Mr. Kirby claimed that there is minimal support from Ukrainians in those areas for being annexed by Russia.
“We expect Russia to try to manipulate the results of these referendums, to falsely claim that the Ukrainian people want to join Russia,” he said.
“It will be critical to call out and counter this disinformation in real-time,” he said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Western leaders “condemn Russia’s attempts to forcefully integrate parts of Ukrainian territory”.
“Any sham referendums or other attempts to alter the status of parts of Ukrainian territory will never be recognized.”
Russian invasion is slowing
The latest report by the Institute for the Study of War said that Russian forces are slowing down the overall pace of their offensive operations in Ukraine.
However, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said that operations in Ukraine were going according to plan and that Russian forces would accomplish all their objectives.
Russian forces have occupied a large area from Kherson to Mariupol as well as a region from Donetsk to Luhansk since the 2022 invasion began.
The Russian army lost an area larger than Denmark since the high-water mark of its invasion of Ukraine in mid-March and gained an area the size of Andorra in the past 39 days.
– with AFP
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