Crimea Air Base Attack Sees Top Air Force General 'Liquidated': Report

A top Russian air force general was killed in strikes on annexed Crimea on Wednesday, according to local reports.

Multiple Russian Telegram channels, including Crimean Wind, reported that Russian Air Force Lieutenant General Alexander Tatarenko was killed during a Ukrainian strike on the Belbek military airfield in Crimea.

Telegram channel Public Reserve Stugna, which has more than 73,000 subscribers, said 10 Russian military personnel were "liquidated" in the attack, including Tatarenko, the commander of the aviation unit at the Belbek air base.

Newsweek couldn't immediately verify the reports and has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email. The Kremlin hasn't commented on the reports.

Tatarenko, 63, served in Russia's Far East, the Urals, Siberia and the northern regions of the country. He was appointed commander of Russia's 14th Air Force and Air Defense Army of the Central Military District of the Russian Federation in 2016, Ukrainian publication RBC reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that it had prevented an attack on the Black Sea peninsula, and downed 20 Ukrainian missiles over Crimea and the Black Sea. It said debris from the missiles had fallen on the territory of a military unit near the Belbek air base, but said no aircraft had been damaged.

Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk thanked his pilots on Thursday for carrying out the operation.

"Ukrainian aviators will definitely return to their home airfield," he said in a post on social media.

Yuriy Ignat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's air force, told reporters on Thursday that the "destruction" of Russia's infrastructure "will reduce Russia's capabilities" and its military's ability to "strike our state."

"We can do this now, because we have some tools," he said. "The destruction of invaders in Crimea…is no longer something new for us, this is the usual combat work of our tactical aviation. In particular, cruise missile strikes against the occupiers in Crimea.

"Of course, we need more weapons themselves, and we would like to receive planes from our partners as soon as possible, so that we can increase our capabilities."

Russia has lost a large number of top generals and commanders since the launch of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to Kyiv. Moscow rarely confirms reports about the deaths of its top commanders.

Federico Borsari, Leonardo Fellow with the Transatlantic Defense and Security Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told Newsweek in September that by eliminating Russian senior military commanders who typically provide purpose, motivation, and direction, Ukraine is seeking to undermine the Russian military's capacity to effectively continue the war.

It is "part of a wider strategy to disrupt their enemies' command-and-control network, with the ultimate goal of significantly degrading Russian forces' ability to plan and conduct coordinated operations," Borsari said.

Update 2/2/24, 5:02 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.

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