UPDATE: Footage shows drone shot down by Russian air defence system near Belbek airfield in Crimea

VIDEO footage circulating on social media reportedly shows the wreckage of a Ukrainian drone shot down near the Belbek airfield in Crimea by Russian air defence systems in Sevastopol.

UPDATE 12.33 pm (October 19) – The footage of the drone shot down near Belbek airfield in Crimea was shared alongside the caption: “The wreckage of a Ukrainian drone shot down in the morning near Sevastopol during an attempt to attack the Belbek airfield.

“UA again tried to use Chinese commercial Skyeye 4450 UAVs,” @Sprinter99880 wrote.

https://twitter.com/sprinter99880/status/1582679049222389760?s=61&t=zp7Llw5Qumg5BSFheMIOGQ

ORIGINAL 8.06 am (October 19) – According to early reports on Wednesday, October 19, a Russian air defence system reportedly shot down a drone over Belbek airfield in Crimea.

Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozzhayev said that an air defence system operating in Sevastopol shot down a drone near Belbek airfield in Crimea.

“The air defence system in Sevastopol worked again in the area of the North Side. According to preliminary data, a drone was shot down near the Belbek airfield,” Razvozzhayev said via his Telegram channel.

The governor urged “everyone to keep calm.”

The incident comes after an aircraft caught fire during landing at Belbek airfield at the beginning of the month.

On Saturday, October 1, multiple reports flooded social media of explosions and a fire at the Belbek airfield in Crimea.

“Major explosions at the main Russian military airbase in Belbek, Russian-occupied Crimea,” one person wrote.

Governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozzhayev, said at the time: “Extraordinary situation at the Belbek airfield. According to rescuers, the plane skidded off the runway during landing and caught fire. The fire brigade is currently on the scene. Please keep calm.”

“Russian sources are claiming a plane skidded off the runway.”

The incident at the airfield followed Ukrainian attacks on Novofedorivka Airbase, an urban-type settlement and a military air base on the Black Sea coast in Saky Raion in western Crimea on Tuesday, August 9.

Following that attack, satellite images appeared to show the devastation at Russia’s Saky Airbase near Novofedorivka in Crimea as a result of the ‘attack from Ukraine’.

Alongside the images, which show a before and after shot of the Novofedorivka Airbase, Eliot Higgins wrote on Wednesday, August 10: “First unrectified images of Saki Air Base in Crimea via @planet following yesterday’s multiple explosions.

“There’s clearly been a massive fire across the base following whatever happened there.”

He added: “Comparison of August 9th and August 10th imagery show very large craters, many destroyed aircraft, and destroyed buildings. It looks like a direct hit on the building on the left, so whatever it was seems accurate.”

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