Special Edition Campaign Assessment: Ukraine’s Strike Campaign Against Crimea
Oct 8, 2023 - ISW Press![](https://understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/ISW%20Logo%20%28slider%20image%29_137.png?itok=XjuA2kgo)
Ukrainian forces have conducted a campaign of strikes against Russian military infrastructure, headquarters, and logistics routes in Crimea since June 2023 in order to degrade the Russian military’s ability to use Crimea as a staging and rear area for Russian defensive operations in southern Ukraine. Ukrainian strikes on logistics routes are disrupting Russian supplies to Kherson and Zaporizhia Oblast. Strikes on Black Sea Fleet assets are degrading its role as a combined arms headquarters but have not defeated it as a naval force. Ukrainian strikes generate outsized morale shocks among Russian commanders and in the Russian information space. Western provision of long-range missiles to Ukraine would amplify this ongoing, essential, and timely campaign to weaken Russia’s ability to defend southern Ukraine.