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Satellite imagery reveals Russia has vacated a military base in northern Crimea. Photo/CNN
WASHINGTON – The team Russia has vacated the main base in northern Crimea. That’s according to satellite imagery recently reviewed by CNN.
The facility, which is close to the village of Medvedivka and the Kherson border, is known to house a large number of Russian armored vehicles.
Earlier, higher-resolution satellite images from technology company Maxar from February 11 showed dozens of armored vehicles, including tanks and artillery pieces.
Maxar images from 11 to 16 February show a large concentration of defensive structures near Medvedivka, including a wedge-shaped network of trenches and anti-tank concrete barriers known as dragon teeth. One Maxar image from 3 January shows the fort was much smaller earlier in the year.
Photo: CNN
Image from the European Union’s Sentinel 2 satellite from January 21 showing large traces of Russian equipment.
Meanwhile, new imagery taken by the EU’s Sentinel 2 satellite reveals most of the vehicles are no longer at the base.
It was not immediately clear why Moscow was moving the equipment or where, but earlier in the month Russian officials in Crimea signaled they expected a Ukrainian retaliatory strike to target the peninsula.
“I think the decision to build defensive structures in Crimea and approaches to the peninsula is correct and justified,” the Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on April 11.
