The inside story of how British missiles were used to attack the Russian fleet

Storm Shadow weapons were critical in Ukraine’s attack on Sevastopol this week, destroying a submarine, large landing ship and crippling the vital dry dock.

- Robert Fox

THE pre-dawn raid on Wednesday was prepared by a series of commando attacks on radar and missile installations, and air strikes to suppress the defences around Sevastopol in Crimea. The result was that the S400 air defence system, on which Russia has relied throughout the Ukraine war, was neutralised.

“Russia’s air defence equipment failed,” Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, said. “We have the astonishing phenomenon that Ukraine, which has virtually no effective navy to speak of, is now in the process of destroying Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

“A year ago, a missile like the Storm Shadow would not have got through. Now they are proving highly effective.”

The Russian authorities, among them the governor of occupied Sevastopol, claimed that all the cruise missiles, aerial and sea drones had been shot down and destroyed. Later they admitted that two vessels in the dry dock had been destroyed and the port set on fire. The governor reported 24 people injured. Eyewitnesses said the fire had been extensive across the old city.