On the night of August 16, 2026, Ukrainian Navy forces struck the launch positions and the base of a Russian Bastion coastal defense missile system in temporarily occupied Crimea.
The results of the operation were officially reported on the Ukrainian Navy’s official Facebook page. According to preliminary information, the enemy suffered significant losses in weapons and personnel. The final results of the strike are still being assessed.
“The Bastion coastal defense missile system is a rare and expensive weapon used by the Russian occupiers to strike southern and other regions of Ukraine with Oniks supersonic missiles and Tsirkon hypersonic missiles,” the Ukrainian Navy stated.
The strike on the Bastion positions also holds particular significance for InformNapalm international intelligence community.
Ten years ago, in August 2016, InformNapalm volunteers reported the deployment of Russian Bastion coastal defense missile systems to the Staryi Krym training ground in the eastern part of the occupied Crimean Peninsula.
The OSINT analysis was based on a video recorded by an eyewitness showing a convoy of Russian military vehicles. While analyzing the footage, InformNapalm volunteers identified at least five Bastion systems. The systems were moved on August 8, 2016, and InformNapalm published the report was on its website on August 9.
At the time, such public OSINT was one of the ways to systematically document the militarization of the occupied peninsula. Russia was deploying new military units, missile systems, aircraft, air defense systems, and other weaponry to Crimea, gradually turning the peninsula into a large military base.
Back in 2016, Ukraine did not possess the capabilities to systematically strike such targets deep inside occupied Crimea. Therefore, the work of civilian OSINT communities primarily focused on locating, identifying, and documenting Russia’s military presence
Ten years later, the situation looks fundamentally different.
Russian military infrastructure in occupied Crimea is regularly targeted by the Ukrainian Defense Forces. Air defense systems, radar stations, warehouses, airfields, command posts, ships, and other components of Russia’s military capabilities on the peninsula have been struck.
The latest strike on the launch positions and the base of the Bastion coastal defense missile systems has now been added to this list.
For InformNapalm volunteers, this footage carries deep symbolic significance. In 2016, we analyzed dashcam footage, identified Russian military equipment in a convoy, and documented its movement through occupied Crimea. In 2026, Ukrainian forces are already demonstrating effective fires against the same types of weapons whose deployment on the peninsula InformNapalm documented ten years ago.
This retrospective clearly demonstrates how much Ukraine’s capabilities have changed over the course of the war.
Crimea holds special significance for our international community. InformNapalm was founded there in 2014. For some of our volunteers, the peninsula remains their home, which Russia occupied and turned into a military foothold.
That is why today’s footage of a Russian Bastion system being struck reminds us of the path traveled over these years: from OSINT documenting Russian missile systems deployment to the capability to search and destroy them.
We hope that this path will ultimately lead to the de-occupation of Ukrainian Crimea.
Read more:
- “We can smuggle even nukes”: Russian officers from the 291st Regiment and Vostok-Akhmat establish weapons smuggling channel through Crimea
- Ukrainian hackers uncover how Russian drone operators are using Belarus
- OKBMLeaks: classified documents from a Russian components manufacturer for Su-57 fighter and PAK DA Poslannik next-gen bomber
- CYBINT operation against the Gonets satellite system, dubbed “Russia’s equivalent of Starlink”
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