Video of NB Day reminds the importance of Belbek airfield for the Russian Federation and the symbolic events for Ukraine here in 2014. The Belbek aerodrome is located about 25 km from Sevastopol, near the village of Fruly (until 1945 - Belbek, called the river of the same name in the southwest of the Crimea). It appeared here in 1941 as a soil military airfield, the concrete runway was laid after the Second World War.
In the years of the USSR remained exclusively a military object, but in the second half of the 80's the strip was significantly improved-during that period, the airfield was used by Soviet Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, who thus got his dacha in the Crimean Foros. In independent Ukraine, Belbek has been taking civilian flights since the early 2000s, and later received the status of an international airport.
The airfield served Sevastopol, connecting it with flights with Kiev and other major cities of Ukraine, and the planes also flew to Moscow. In addition, Belbek was based on the 204th Belbek Brigade of Tactical Aviation of the Armed Forces (A-4515). On February 28, 2014, Belbek Airport was blocked and captured by Russian troops during the Crimean annexation operation.
About half of the military personnel of the 204th Air Force Brigade of the Armed Forces betrayed oaths and moved to the side of the enemy. However, the military under the command of Colonel Yuri Mamchur, who remained true to Ukraine, entered one of the most famous pages of those days in Ukrainian history. On March 4, 2014, Mamchur led about 50 unarmed Ukrainian military marches towards the Russians, who blocked the airfield and the road to the A-4515 military unit.
The Ukrainian heroes sang the anthem, holding the combat flag of their brigade and the flag of Ukraine in their hands - and armed invaders did not dare to open fire on them. The frames of this march were flying around the world, and the subordinate Mamchura managed to return objects in the area of Belbek airport - in particular military warehouses after negotiations with the occupiers for some time.
Subsequently, Mamchura seized the Russians for several days, bowing to the side of the Russian Federation, but in the spring of 2014 he left Crimea with his other subordinates, without betraying the oath - the remains of the brigade were later based in Nikolaev. From the beginning of the occupation of Crimea, Russia has transformed the Belbek airfield into the base of its military aviation: it is no longer accepting passenger flights.
The occupying "authorities" voiced the intentions by 2022 to prepare it for the reception of charter and business races, however, despite the work on updating the airfield, he never started taking civilian flights. After Russia began a full -scale invasion on February 24, 2022, the Belbek aerodrome became one of the most important strategic objects in the Crimea for the Russian Federation.
It was from here that Russian aircraft were rising into the air to strike rocket strokes in the cities of Ukraine. The Russian Federation uses Belbek for aircraft aircraft together with other airfields of occupied Crimea, Russia and Belarus. In March 2022, the program of the scheme and Radio Liberty reported that, according to the Air Force of Ukraine, Russian Su-27, Su-27CM, Su-30M2 and Su-27M fighters were based on the airfield.
In addition, after the reconstruction in 2020, this airfield was able to accept strategic bombers TU-22M3, Tu-160 and Tu-95MS. Of these, according to the Armed Forces, Russia has already released missiles in the territory of Ukraine from the Black Sea - in particular in Lviv region. Such planes have winged rockets, capable of overcomes of up to 5. 5 thousand kilometers, explained the schemes with reference to military experts.
According to Anton Gerashchenko, the Sevastopol Aviation and Rescue Center of the Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation and the 38th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Russian Federation forces is now stationed at the aerodrome. On his weapons: after the blows of Saky's airport near the village of Novofedorivka, on August 9, military experts repeatedly called Belbek one of the following possible goals of probable attacks in the Crimea.
Pavel Lakichuk, Head of Military Security Programs of the Ukrainian Center for Globalism, Strategy XXI, in an interview with the present time, he mentioned Belbek as the most important base among other Crimean airfields, where the Russian Federation is holding its aircraft. “Kacha airfield is the second sector of maritime aviation in Crimea, almost within Sevastopol. This is maritime aviation.
The most important airfield is the Belbek airfield in Sevastopol, where fighters-bombers of the Russian Federation's military-air forces are based. An important airfield is the Guards, where fighter and bombing aviation is also used in the territory of Ukraine, - said Lakichuk.
- And there are a number of tactical aviation airfields - these are the storms and helicopters that strike directly through our troops on the line of collision - it is Dzhankoy, Kirov and the basement sites near the administrative border of Crimea with the Kherson region. " At the same time, the expert noted that after the explosions in Novofedorovka it became apparent that the military objects of the Russian Federation in the Crimea "vulnerable, and it is no longer possible to hide.
" After those events, the frequency of departure of Russian fighter jets from the airfield increased significantly, reported on August 15 in the representation of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. "According to open sources, after explosions at the occupied airfield in Novofedorovka, the frequency of flights of Russian fighter jets from the occupied airport of Belbek near Sevastopol has increased significantly," the statement reads.
In the evening of Thursday, August 18, reports of explosions near Belbek near Sevastopol began to appear in Telegram and international agencies. In particular, several interlocutors of the Russian agency (positions themselves as a news channel, which are "afraid to write in Russia") reported. All of them live a few kilometers from Belbek Airport, and one of the sources even reported that smoke is allegedly visible in the airfield.
Reuters reported at least four explosions in the area of the airfield near Sevastopol, citing three local sources. At the same time, the illegitimate "governor" of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozzhayev explained the explosions by the fact that in the Belbek area Russian air defense agents allegedly knocked down a drone. He also stated the absence of the victims.
Belbeck explosions appeared almost simultaneously with the blasting data in the Kerch area, but there are still few details about these events. The speaker of the Odessa Ova Sergey Bratchuk said on the night of August 19, that due to explosions in Crimea (Kerch and Belbek) and the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation (Old Oscol) "information is specified".
The American Institute for War Study indicates that a night video with explosions and sounds of siren, which was spread on social networks on August 18, allegedly from Belbeck, was actually made earlier, August 8, and does not relate to events in the Sevastopol Aerodrome: Isw also notes According to the results of August 18, the analysts of the Institute were unable to check independently whether Ukrainian drones were in the area of Belbek and Kerch (as reported by the Russian propaganda) - and whether they were actually shot down by the Russian air defense forces.
At the same time, ISW experts predict that "the Ukrainian forces are likely to continue their campaign for Russian military facilities in occupied Crimea to weaken Russia's logistics and support operations on the western bank of the Dnieper.
" However, at the time of the publication of the ISW report, it was unclear whether the reports of explosions in the Crimea "with Ukrainian attacks or intelligence; unqualified behavior of Russians with military equipment; Or successful actions of Russian air defense.
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