Friday, 12th August, 2022

Page 2
Satellite images appear
to show major damage
and a 00warplanes at a
Crimea airbase following
explosions there this
week.
The Saky base in the west of
Russian-ruled Crimea was rocked
by a string of blasts on Tuesday,
killing one person.
The base's runways appear
intact, but at least eight aircraft
seem damaged or destroyed with
several craters visible.
Ukraine has not claimed
responsibility - but this new
evidence suggests the possibility
of a targeted attack.
It also dispels Russia's denial
that any of its aircraft were damaged.
The images, from the USbased
Planet Labs, show large
areas of scorched earth left from
fires that erupted.
Most of the damaged or destroyed
aircraft are in a specific
area of the base where a large
number of planes were parked
out in the open - away from the
cover of hangars.
Before and after satellite
Former US President Donald
Trump has declined to
answer questions as part
of a New York state investigation
into his family's
business practices.
Mr Trump had sued in an
effort to block the interview at the
New York attorney general's office
on Wednesday.
State officials accuse the
Trump Organization of misleading
authorities about the value of
its assets in order to get favourable
loans and tax breaks.
Mr Trump denies wrongdoing
and has called the civil probe a
witch hunt.
An hour after he was pictured
arriving at the Manhattan
office where he was questioned
under oath, Mr Trump released a
statement in which he criticised
New York Attorney General Letitia
James and the broader investigation.
"Years of work and tens of millions
of dollars have been spent
on this long simmering saga, and
to no avail," he said. "I declined to
answer the questions under the
rights and privileges afforded to
every citizen under the United
States Constitution."
images:
Two types of fighter jets,
including Su-24Ms, have been
damaged by explosions, along
with two buildings nearby.
How the base was damaged,
or by what, is still unconfirmed.
William Alberque, from
defence think tank IISS, has told
the BBC that two buildings may
have been used to temporarily
store weapons, and would have
been targeted for maximum
impact on the fighter jets parked
nearby.
The base's runway, and permanent
weapons storage sites
located further away from the
planes, seem untouched.
Mr Alberque says it is likely
that cluster munitions were
used, but Ukraine doesn't have
the kind of missiles needed to
carry out this kind of attack.
If Ukraine is responsible, he
suggests they used repurposed
S-300 missiles, typically for surface-to-air
attacks, or anti-ship
Neptune missiles.
But Louise Jones, head of
intelligence at McKenzie Intelligence,
says the satellite images
DAILY ANALYST Friday, 12th August, 2022
aren't conclusive enough.
If makeshift missiles were
used, Ms Jones says there's no evidence
they missed any potential
targets.
"To be that accurate at that
range with possibly an experimental
munition is unlikely," she
suggests.
Another scenario would be a
sabotage operation by Ukrainian
special forces or paramilitary
groups. Ms Jones says this isn't
impossible, but again highly
unlikely.
A third option, she adds, is
that the explosions were an
accident - caused by a fuel leak, or
ammunition exploding in one of
the two storage sheds.
Russia has blamed the blasts
on this latter option and said fire
safety rules were being flouted on
the base.
The before and after images
from Planet Labs, which
monitors hundreds of satellite
feeds over Ukraine, are the first
independent confirmation that
the base may have been damaged.
Until now, details about the
extent of the explosions' impact
have been scarce.
Ukraine has not claimed
responsibility and its defence
minister suggested that careless
Russian soldiers could be to
blame.
"I think that Russian military
guys in this airbase ruined their
very simply known rule: don't
Donald Trump refuses to answer
questions in New York investigation
Ms James' office confirmed
that the interview took place on
Wednesday and that "Mr Trump
invoked his Fifth Amendment
right against self-incrimination".
"Attorney General James
will pursue the facts and the law
wherever they may lead," the
statement added. "Our investigation
continues."
His deposition comes just
days after the FBI executed an
unprecedented search warrant at
his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, as
part of a separate investigation
that is reportedly linked to his
handling of classified material.
While the attorney general's
investigation is a civil one,
a parallel investigation is being
carried out by the Manhattan
District Attorney's office which
could result in criminal charges.
Legal analysts suggest Mr
Trump may have declined to
answer questions on Wednesday
because his answers could have
been used against him in that
criminal investigation. The former
president invoked the Fifth
Amendment, which protects
people from being compelled to
be a witness against themselves
in a criminal case.
Media caption,
Trump on people pleading the
Fifth Amendment: 'Disgraceful'
The questioning lasted around
four hours, and included lengthy
breaks, his lawyer Ronald Fischetti
told US media.
Mr Trump began by reading
a statement into the record condemning
the attorney general and
her investigation and invoking his
Fifth Amendment rights.
He proceeded to say "same
answer" to every question he was
asked.
Ms James' office has said that
the depositions - a legal term that
means testimony not given in
court - were among the last remaining
investigative procedures
to be carried out.
Once the investigation concludes,
the state attorney general
could decide to bring a lawsuit
seeking financial penalties
against Mr Trump or his company.
Ms James had sought Mr
Trump's deposition - and that of
two of his children, Ivanka and
Donald Trump Jr - for more than
six months while the family
resisted subpoenas through the
New York court system.
Lawyers for Mr Trump had
Global News
Ukraine war: Crimea
airbase badly damaged,
satellite images show
smoke in dangerous places," said
Oleksiy Reznikov. "That's it."
Ukraine's air force said about
a dozen Russian warplanes were
destroyed, though.
The UK's Defence Secretary,
Ben Wallace, suggested that the
fact there were two separate
explosions points to an attack
rather than an accident. He also
defended Ukraine's right to target
Crimea.
"It's absolutely legitimate for
Ukraine to take lethal force, if
necessary... in order to regain not
only its territory, but also to push
back its invader," he told the BBC.
Any attack by Ukraine inside
Crimea would be seen as an escalation
of the war. Russia sounded
a warning last month when
ex-President Dmitry Medvedev
threatened that "Judgement Day
will instantly await" if Ukraine
targeted Crimea.
Crimea is internationally
recognised as part of Ukraine -
but the Black Sea peninsula was
annexed by Russia in 2014. Many
Ukrainians see this as the start of
their war with Russia.
Following Tuesday's blasts,
President Volodymyr Zelensky
dedicated his nightly address to
Crimea and suggested that he
believed Ukraine must retake the
peninsula before the war can end.
Russia annexed Crimea in
March 2014, after the territory -
which has a Russian-speaking
majority - voted to join Russia
also attempted to sue Ms James in
a bid to prevent her from questioning
the former president and
his children.
But in February, a New York
Supreme Court judge ruled that
all three must sit for depositions.
Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr were
questioned earlier this month.
The judge said the investigation
had uncovered "copious
evidence of possible financial
fraud" giving the attorney general
a "clear right" to question under
oath the former president and
in a referendum that the global
community deems illegal.
The vote was hastily organised
after unmarked Russian
troops took control of several
strategic sites around the peninsula
Ṙussia's annexation came
after Ukraine's Russian-backed
president was ousted following
months of pro-European protests.
On 24 February this year
- eight years after the Crimea
annexation - Moscow launched
a full-scale invasion of Ukraine,
using Crimea as a springboard
to move Russian troops deeper
inside Ukraine.
In other developments:
• Foreign ministers
from the G7 group of nations say
Russia must immediately hand
back control of the Zaporizhzhia
nuclear power plant to Ukraine
because of safety fears. The facility
and its surrounding area saw
shelling last week, which Russia
and Ukraine blamed on each
other
• The Ukrainian military
reports a bridge in the occupied
part of Kherson region has been
rendered unusable after being
struck by artillery earlier in the
week. Ukraine has mounted a
counteroffensive in the area
• Russian investigators
have launched a criminal inquiry
against journalist Marina
Ovsyannikova, who denounced
Russia's invasion on live TV
two of his children involved in the
business.
Ms James hailed the judge's
decision as a victory, saying that
"justice has prevailed".
The investigation, which was
first opened in 2019, seeks to prove
that Mr Trump and the Trump
Organization misrepresented the
value of assets in order to obtain
favourable loans and tax breaks.
The alleged fraud is said to have
taken place before Mr Trump took
office.