Why is Ukraine finding it difficult to strike Russia’s drone base in Crimea?

Hvardiyske Airfield, in the center of Crimea occupied by Russia, has become an important launch site for drones. The Ukrainian military says it first identified the site as a base for attack drones in March 2025 and that it has been used for attacks almost every day since then. In Russian, the facility is known as Gvardeiskoye.

Satellite images from October 11 do not show military aircraft, but they reveal new and expanded infrastructure at the Soviet-era airfield. According to observers, it is linked to drone-launch operations.

Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russian drone storage facilities and launch sites in Crimea. They include facilities at Cape Chauda, on the southeastern tip of the peninsula, and near Balaklava, where an attack reportedly put the base out of service. Hvardiyske has also been attacked by Ukrainian drones, but the damage caused has been minor.

A Crimean resident and former Ukrainian army officer told RFE/RL’s Crimea service that, in his view, the main difficulty lies in the dispersal of activities across different parts of the airfield. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The launch site is in one place, maintenance is carried out in another, and the storage facilities are somewhere else,” he said, adding that this makes it more difficult to disable the entire center.

He assessed that the infrastructure is easy to restore after an attack and that some of the facilities are located in open areas.

In the satellite photograph obtained by RFE/RL, dozens of unidentified objects can be seen positioned several meters apart in a grassy area in the southwestern part of the base.

The former officer told RFE/RL that an underground storage facility built during the Soviet era for aircraft ammunition could be used to store large quantities of attack drones. It is located about 15 kilometers from Hvardiyske.

“It is highly likely that the Shaheds have been hidden there,” he said. According to him, penetrating the fortified facility may be impossible, even with Ukraine’s missiles.

The airfield’s location in the center of Crimea, a peninsula already equipped with air-defense systems, may make it a more difficult target for Ukrainian planners.

While coastal sites can be attacked from the sea, Ukrainian drones targeting Hvardiyske “have to fly about 100 kilometers over land to strike this facility, where the chances of being shot down are greater,” the source said.

An archival photograph shows Shahed drones positioned in hangars in Russia’s Oryol region. Russia widely uses these long-range attack drones, designed by Iran, against targets in Ukraine, while also producing its own variants.

Hvardiyske previously served as a base for Soviet naval aviation and later for Ukrainian naval aviation. After Russia annexed Crimea, control was taken over by the Russian Aerospace Forces. They stationed Su-24M bombers and Su-25SM attack aircraft there before the base was transformed into a drone center./RFE/RL