Explosions at the Saki airbase on the annexed Crimean peninsula earlier this month disabled more than half of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's combat aircraft, a Western official said today, Reuters reported, citing BTA.

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At the air base near Novofiodorovka, on the western coast of the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, there were multiple explosions on August 9.

Explosions have rocked a Russian military base in occupied Crimea

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ukraine was already consistently achieving "kinetic effects" deep behind the Russians, and this was having a negative impact on Russia's logistics and a "significant psychological effect on the leadership in Moscow."

"We now estimate that the events at the Saki airfield on August 9 disabled more than half of the Black Sea Fleet's combat aircraft," the official said.

On August 12, the British Ministry of Defense said in its intelligence update that Russian warplanes had been destroyed in the blast and Russia's naval capabilities had been severely degraded.

The official said that Russia's Black Sea Fleet is currently nothing more than a "coastal defense flotilla" that only launches occasional missile strikes, and that its attempt to threaten Odessa with a landing has been thwarted.

The official added that the war as a whole is at a "moment of near operational standstill".

"Neither side's ground forces have enough concentrated combat power to launch effective offensive actions that would in any way materially affect the course of the war," the official said.

Russian invasion of Ukraine