Sevastopol, Crimea (VOA) —
Ukraine claimed responsibility for a missile attack on a Russian naval base in Crimea on Friday, dealing a major blow to Moscow as the country has suffered a series of attacks on strategically important ports in recent months.
“The headquarters of the (Russian Black Sea) fleet has been hit by enemy attacks,” said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol.
Video footage on social media showed thick clouds of smoke coming from a Russian naval base in the area.
“Ukrainian defense forces successfully launched an attack on the command headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet in currently occupied (Russian) Sevastopol,” the Ukrainian military said via Telegram.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, one soldier is missing. The ministry also reported that the historic headquarters of its Black Sea Fleet was damaged.
The Crimean peninsula was simultaneously hit by “unprecedented cyberattacks” against its internet service providers, said Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to Crimea’s governor.
Three Ukrainian soldiers stand near artillery shells on the front line, amid Russian attacks on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday September 22, 2023.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted naval facilities in Crimea in recent weeks, while its summer counteroffensive has made slow progress in Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions, the Institute for War Studies said Thursday.
Military experts say it is important for Ukraine to continue carrying out attacks on targets in Crimea to lower Russia’s morale and weaken its military.
The attack came a day after Russia pounded Ukrainian cities with missile and artillery attacks, killing at least five people.
Russian attacks wounded 13 people in a town west of the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, near Ukraine’s eastern front, a local official said early Friday.
Two airstrikes on the town caused fires, Roman Padun, head of the Kurakhove town administration, told public broadcaster Suspilne.
Russia and Ukraine have recently experienced “extraordinarily intense” attacks “well behind their defense lines,” the British Ministry of Defense said Friday in its daily intelligence report on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the past four days, the ministry said there were reports of explosions at Russian logistics sites, air bases and command posts in Crimea, Russia’s Krasnodar region and near Moscow.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said Thursday that Russian forces carried out airstrikes in several cities throughout the night, killing at least two people.
A police officer inspects damage to an industrial area in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, after a massive overnight missile attack on Ukraine Thursday, September 21, 2023.
Ukraine’s military described Russia’s actions as “massive missile strikes against civilian infrastructure in a number of areas.”
Oleksandr Prokudin, governor of the Kherson region, said the Russian attack hit a residential building, killing two people and wounding five others.
Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said via Telegram that debris fell on the Ukrainian capital after air defenses shot down a Russian missile.
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said seven people were injured and several buildings were damaged.
In northeastern Ukraine, the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said at least six Russian strikes hit the city of Kharkiv and damaged civilian infrastructure.
Russia said Thursday it destroyed 19 Ukrainian drones in the annexed Crimean Peninsula and near the Black Sea.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down three other Ukrainian drones in Russia’s Kursk, Belgorod and Orlov regions. (pp/ft}