Russian occupation of Crimea
Russian forces occupied the base during the Russian occupation of Crimea in early 2014. The Ukrainian 10th Saky Naval Aviation Brigade, controlling all the Ukrainian Navy's air units, managed to get a number of its aircraft airborne to fly to bases in mainland Ukraine on March 5,[12] but more than a dozen aircraft and helicopters undergoing maintenance had to be abandoned.
On 1 July 2014, the 43rd independent Naval Assault Aviation Regiment arrived at the base from Gvardeyskoye, also in the Crimea. In turn, the regiment had arrived from Choibalsan in Mongolia in June 1990.[13]
Murder of Stanislav Karachevsky
On 7 April 2014, the Ukrainian defense ministry announced that a Ukrainian Naval officer had been shot dead in the village of Novofedorivka.[14] The incident took place outside the Novofedorivka Air Base in the military dormitory building, which was occupied by Ukrainian servicemen and their families that were awaiting relocation to mainland Ukraine.
While Ukrainian Navy Major Stanislav Karachevsky of military unit No. 1100 was preparing his belongings in preparation to leave Crimea, a conflict between him and several soldiers on both sides broke out.[15][16] The fight escalated to where Junior Sergeant Yevheniy S. Zaytsev of the Black Sea Fleet shot the unarmed officer twice in the head and chest at point blank range with an AK-74 assault rifle on the fifth floor of the dormitory building where Russian soldiers were evacuating the troops. Karachevsky died immediately. A second Ukrainian officer, Captain Artem Yermolenko, was beaten and abducted by Russian soldiers. The major's body was reportedly taken by Russian troops.[17]
Russian sources confirmed the killing, but said that it was an incident where a group of drunk Ukrainian soldiers on their way to the sleeping quarters encountered Russian soldiers manning a checkpoint on the road to the air base where they were previously stationed. The Ukrainian armed forces says that Russian soldiers pursued the unarmed Ukrainian into the barracks, shot him dead, and then moved the body.[18]
Zaytsev was convicted by a Russian military court for murder and sentenced to two years imprisonment.[19]
After the 2022 Russian invasion
On 9 August 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several explosions occurred at the military airbase.[20] Satellite images showed that the explosions destroyed "at least eight aircraft... with several craters visible... Most of the damaged or destroyed aircraft [were] in a specific area of the base where a large number of planes were parked out in the open – away from the cover of hangars."[21] By 19 August, Reuters reported that an unnamed Western official said that "[w]e now assess that the events of... August 9 put more than half of [the] Black Sea fleet's naval aviation combat jets out of use."[22]
The base was also struck on 21 September 2023.[23][24][25]
On 6 January 2024, a command post at the base was struck with Storm Shadow missiles, killing Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Chornobryby, the deputy commander of the 43rd Independent Naval Assault Aviation Regiment [ru].[26]