In a May 21 post on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian Security Service's Alpha special forces unit struck a Russian Federal Security Service's (FSB) facility and destroyed a Pantsir-S1 air defense system on occupied Ukrainian territory, killing and wounding about 100 Russian personnel.

Zelensky attached footage that appeared to geolocate the operation to the Arabat Spit in the occupied Kherson region, north of Crimea, where Ukrainian media had reported a May 17 strike on a former hotel complex. NASA fire-monitoring data reportedly also showed a large fire in the area. The facility's affiliation with the FSB has not been independently confirmed, but Russia's FSB border service had restricted civilian access to the Arabat Spit in 2023 on security grounds, making the area a plausible location for Russian military or security service activity.