“I am grateful to our Air Force for the impressive replenishment of the Russian underwater Black Sea fleet with another vessel. The occupiers will not have a single peaceful place in Ukraine,” he wrote.
Russia says it has gained control of Ukraine town of Maryinka
Russia says it has gained control of Ukraine town of Maryinka
“The Russian fleet has become smaller,” Ukrainian air force Commander Mykola Oleschuk said in a mocking message on the Telegram app. He urged Russians to leave Crimea “while it’s not too late.”
Ukraine is challenging Russia’s naval superiority in the region despite lacking warships of its own by relying on missiles and unmanned maritime drones. Ukraine’s air defence said on Telegram it attacked the Novocherkassk with cruise missiles around 2:30am local time.
Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been the target of Ukrainian drone and missile attacks for months.
The Kerch Strait bridge linking mainland Russia to the peninsula was partially damaged in July, while in September Ukraine hit another shipyard on the western coast of the peninsula, damaging two navy vessels.
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Crimea bridge ’emergency’ caused by Ukrainian surface drones, Russia says
Crimea bridge ’emergency’ caused by Ukrainian surface drones, Russia says
Shortly after that, Ukraine struck the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the port city of Sevastopol, damaging the building and prompting Russia to relocate vessels to the other nearby ports, including Feodosia. Last month Ukrainian missiles struck a vessel at a shipyard in Kerch on the Crimean Peninsula.
A series of successful attacks at Russian military ships allowed Ukraine to open alternative path to export grain by the Black Sea after Russia pulled out from a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. Ukraine shipped 10 million tons of commodities, mostly grains, through the passage since August.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Ukraine had attacked the port and damaged a naval landing ship, a Kremlin spokesman said.
Ukraine’s military said earlier that its air force destroyed the Russian navy’s Novocherkassk landing ship in the western Crimean port.
“Today defence minister Shoigu reported [to Putin] about the strike that the Ukrainians carried out on Feodosia and about the damage to our large landing ship. It was a very detailed report,” the president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
The Ukrainian defence ministry wrote earlier on X that the “Novocherkassk landing ship was destroyed in Feodosia tonight”.
Ukraine’s aviation did an excellent job. Crimea is Ukraine. There is no place for the occupier’s fleet here
The ministry posted an unattributed photo showing flames and smoke in a port at night.
“Ukraine’s aviation did an excellent job. Crimea is Ukraine. There is no place for the occupier’s fleet here,” the ministry wrote.
The country’s air force said that the ship was suspected to have been carrying attack drones.
Landing ships such as the Novocherkassk “are now used by the enemy almost constantly as logistics facilities, as transportation of important cargo,” the spokesperson for Ukraine’s military southern command, Nataliya Gumenyuk, was quoted as saying by the UNIAN news agency.
Putin challenger calling for peace in Ukraine blocked from Russia election
Putin challenger calling for peace in Ukraine blocked from Russia election
The Novocherkassk was damaged in an attack in March 2022, about a month after the war started, but Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on Radio Liberty that it has been recently used to transport weapons and soldiers to the Zaporizhzhia region, which is partly held by Russian forces.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said the country’s air defence shot down 13 of 19 Shahed-type drones that were launched by Russia overnight from Crimea and its territory on the eastern shore of the Sea of Azov.
The attacks struck an infrastructure facility, causing a fire near Odesa, and damaged a storage building in the southern Mykolayiv region.
Reporting by Bloomberg, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse