Britain says sanctions also impact Russia's defense sector

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The European Union's full ban on Russian coal imports kicked in on Thursday at a time when British defense intelligence said that Western sanctions were increasingly having an impact, even on Russia's defense exports.

Britain said that Moscow was already strained by the need to produce armored fighting vehicles for its troops in Ukraine and hence “is highly unlikely to be capable of fulfilling some export orders,” in a sector it has long taken pride in.

The British defense intelligence update, highlighting “the increasing effect of Western sanctions,” dovetails with Western belief that the series of measures they imposed on the Kremlin since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine are increasingly having an impact on the Russian economy.

The update said that because of the war and sanctions, “its military industrial capacity is now under significant strain, and the credibility of many of its weapon systems has been undermined by their association with Russian forces' poor performance.”

Russia military credibility came under more pressure on Wednesday when Ukraine said nine Russian warplanes were destroyed i n a string of explosions at an air base in Russian-controlled Crimea that appeared to be the result of a Ukrainian attack.

Russia denied any aircraft were damaged in the blasts — or that any attack took place. But satellite photos clearly showed at least seven fighter planes at the base had been blown up and others probably damaged.

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace dismissed Russian explanations of the blasts, including a wayward cigarette butt, as “excuses.”

"When you just look at the footage of two simultaneous explosions not quite next to each other, and some of the reported damage even by the Russian authorities, I think it’s clear that...