Russia To Deploy Advanced Antimissile System In Crimea

The S-400 antimissile system is capable of tracking some 300 targets and engaging three dozen simultaneously. (file photo)

Russia plans to deploy the advanced S-400 missile-defense system in the occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea.

The deputy commander of the Russian Army's 18th Air Defense Regiment, based in Feodosia, told Russian media on July 15 that the state-of-the-art system should be deployed by August.

It is unclear whether they will replace or augment the S-300 systems currently deployed there. The S-400 is capable of tracking some 300 targets and engaging three dozen simultaneously.

It has a range of several hundred kilometers.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula in March 2014, a move widely rejected by the international community.

The Crimean port of Sevastopol is the home base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Based on reporting by RIA-Novosti and AFP