Ukraine yesterday morning launched another missile attack on Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, a Russian-installed official said, a day after an attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet left the main building smoldering.
Sevastopol was put on air raid alert for about an hour after debris from intercepted missiles fell near a pier, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on the messaging app Telegram.
Ferry traffic in the area was also halted and later resumed.
Photo: AFP / handout / Planet Labs PBC
Loud blasts were also heard near Vilne in northern Crimea, followed by rising clouds of smoke, said a pro-Ukrainian Telegram news channel that reports on developments on the peninsula.
Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, has been a frequent target for Ukrainian forces since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of the neighboring country almost 19 months ago.
While Russia on Friday said that at least one Russian serviceman was missing after the attack, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Intelligence Directorate, yesterday told Voice of America that at least nine people were killed and 16 injured as a result of Kyiv’s attack on the Black Sea Fleet.
He said that Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general commanding forces along the key southeastern front line, was “in a very serious condition” following the attack.
Budanov’s claim could not be independently verified, and he did not comment on whether Western-made missiles were used in Friday’s strike.
Ukraine’s military also offered more details about Friday’s attack on Sevastopol.
It said the air force conducted 12 strikes on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, targeting areas where personnel, military equipment and weapons were concentrated.
It said that two anti-aircraft missile systems and four Russian artillery units were hit.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s military yesterday said that Russia launched 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones at the front-line Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast, as well as Dnipropetrovsk Oblast farther north. It claimed to have destroyed 14 of the drones.
Separately, Zaporizhzhia Governor Yuriy Malashko said that Russia over the previous day carried out 86 strikes on 27 settlements in the oblast, many of them lying only a few kilometers from the fighting.
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