Pavlo Lakiichuk, head of security programs at the Center for Globalization Strategy XXI, shared his opinions on Espreso TV.“Crimea serves as the first line of air defense protection against Ukraine’s strikes for the whole of southern Russia. That is why on Crimea’s western side there are already well‑known defensive lines — Tarkhankut, Yevpatoria, Fiolent. And to strike Tuapse or Novorossiysk, you have to break through exactly those lines that protect Russia’s south. Accordingly, Crimea is a key element in Russia’s air defense system. As soon as Ukrainian defenders destroy air defense systems on the peninsula, the Russians pull systems back to Crimea from all over Russia,” the military expert commented.He added that, regarding Moscow’s protection, the Russians have created three air defense layers there, but that is point defense — forces specifically covering Moscow. To break through such defenses, Ukrainian drones would still have to reach them, whereas Crimea is reached again and again, because it is a window for Ukrainian missiles and UAVs.“Every week we hear about the destruction of an air defense system or a radar station on the Crimean coast, but a week later the Russians bring a new system from the Far East. Where Russia used to have whole brigades of air defense — on Kamchatka, in Primorye — now there are practically clearings overgrown with young cedars, i.e. no complexes remain because they’ve been pulled all the way here. We see transporters in Arctic camouflage rolling across the southern Kherson steppes. The Russians don’t even have time to repaint that Arctic equipment,” the military expert noted.On October 6, explosions were reported in several settlements across the temporarily occupied Crimea. According to social media reports, a military facility near Yevpatoria was hit, and a fire is burning at an oil depot in Feodosia.