Arthur Greene
The Ukrainian armed forces have poked fun at Russian tourists whose holiday in Crimea was cut short on Tuesday when a Russian airbase was blown up.
The Defence of Ukraine shared a video on Twitter on Thursday trolling the scores of Russian sun seekers.
To the catchy sound of Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer”, the video intercuts clips of luscious white beaches around the world with grainy footage of the huge explosion at the Saky airbase.
“You had a few options this summer,” the video’s text reads. “Palm Jumeirah beaches, Antalya resorts, Cuban Cabanas.
“You chose Crimea. Big Mistake.”
An accompanying Tweet read, “Unless they want an unpleasantly hot summer break, we advise our valued Russian guests not to visit Ukrainian Crimea.
“Because no amount of sunscreen will protect them from the hazardous effects of smoking in unauthorised areas.”
The Crimean peninsula is recognised by the international community as a Ukrainian territory, but it was invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014 and has been under its control ever since.
Until Tuesday, it had stayed largely clear of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so this summer Russians thought little of flocking to the holiday hotspot.
But by Tuesday night social media was ablaze with footage of upset tourists stuck in huge traffic jams as they tried to flee the city.
The Ukrainian army’s video shows a clip of one teary-eyed tourist leaving the city of Alushta. Crying into the camera, she says, “I don’t want to leave Crimea, Alushta at all. How cool it is here.”
At least nine fighter jets were taken out in the hugely significant strike, which Ukraine claimed responsibility for afterwards.
To put that into perspective, analysts at Oryx say that this accounts for about 20% of all recorded Russian combat aircraft losses since the war began on 24 February.
Video source: @DefenceU
