It's rather amazing how helpful Russian tourists in Crimea have been - for Ukraine. This man's snapshot in front of a S-400 Triumph mobile missile system likely resulted in the loss of a piece of high-tech military equipment that costs around $400m USD to produce.

Source: Svoboda.org

Vacationers in Crimea photographed the S-400 air defense systems near Yevpatoria and posted the photos on social networks.

This happened in the area of Lake Terekly (Salt) near the village of Molochnoye , next to the Black Sea coast. Air defense activity in the area was reported on Friday and Saturday . On Sunday evening, the Russian-appointed governor of the annexed Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozzhaev, also wrote in a telegram that the Russian air defense systems "worked out the next objects on the approaches to Belbek (military airfield - RS) from Evpatoria." On Saturday, a drone attacked the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Independent OSINT researcher Benjamin Pittet drew attention to a photograph of air defense systems published at the end of July by a VKontakte user. The photo contained geographic coordinates showing that the pictures were taken near Molochny. On the Internet there are other similar photos of these systems indicating geolocation. All this made it possible to establish that the S-400 at the time these photos were taken were deployed in a field north of the salt lakes.

🧵 Russian tourists reveal S-400 air defense systems positioned near Yevpatoria. AD is active nearly every day in this area according to local authorities. Geolocation 45.180317, 33.232232 https://t.co/BCm5SChWHR pic.twitter.com/lcOv58Lyju

— Mark Krutov (@kromark) August 21, 2022

Ukraine's Department of Defense thanked the Russian tourist in a tweet.