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| Russian Tourist Accidentally Leaks Location of S-400 Air Defense Missile System in Crimea |
Crimea - A Russian tourist accidentally leaked the location of the deployment of the S-400 missile defense system while on vacation in Crimea. The tourist uploaded a photo with the background of the defense weapon on social media.
According to the independent research institute OSINT, Benjamin Pittet, the tourist uploaded a sensitive photo of his walk along the coast showing the S-400 device in Crimea in July on the social media platform VKontakte. The photos contain geographic coordinates indicating that they were taken near the village of Molochnoye, in Crimea. This is a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for the Russian service.
🧵 Russian tourists reveal S-400 air defense systems positioned near Yevpatoria. AD is active nearly every day in this area according to local authorities. Geolocation 45.180317, 33.232232 https://t.co/BCm5SChWHR pic.twitter.com/lcOv58Lyju
— Mark Krutov (@kromark) August 21, 2022
Pittet said the Russian state-of-the-art defense weapons kit arrived near the western Crimean city of Yevpatoria, around July 20. In another example highlighted by the Ukrainian armed forces on Telegram, a Russian woman shared an image on Instagram revealing the location of a Russian anti-aircraft missile defense system near Yevpatoria.
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! pic.twitter.com/bj5oEyXU0H
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) August 22, 2022
The photo was geo-tagged Yevpatoria, and captioned: "Under protection." The woman's Instagram account has now been deleted. The Russian Foreign Ministry, contacted by the media, has not yet commented on the tourists' accidental disclosure of the location of the deployment of the S-400 defense system in Crimea. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that they were also able to take close-up pictures of Russian air defense installations published by other VKontakte users.
Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is a tourist spot for Russians. Moscow rejects the annexation narrative, insisting the region chose to join the Russian Federation through a referendum.