Russia confirms that a Ukrainian strike damaged one of its ships in Crimea.
Russia confirmed on Tuesday that one of its ships had been damaged in an attack on Kyiv in annexed Crimea, a new snub for Moscow in the Black Sea welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zalouzhny, admitted that his troops had withdrawn to the “outskirts” of the town of Marinka (east), whose capture had been claimed the day before by Moscow. A sign as Russian forces are gaining ground in this region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed by his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of “damage” suffered by the great landing ship Novocherkassk during this strike in Crimea, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov told the press, without providing further details.
The Ministry of Defense, cited by the RIA Novosti agency, indicated that the boat had been “damaged overnight during an attack by Ukrainian armed forces using cruise missiles” in the town of Feodosia.
The Ukrainian army claims to have “destroyed” this shipwhich it said carried Iranian-made Shahed drones, frequently used by Moscow in the conflict.
The attack was carried out around 2:30 a.m. (00:30 GMT) using cruise missiles of “tactical aviation,” the air force said on Telegram.
Its commander, Mykola Olechchuk, relayed a video showing an explosion and a spray of flames.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky implied that the ship had been sunk, sarcastically praising the work of his air force “for the impressive addition of a new ship to the Russian fleet submarine in the Black Sea.
“Great victory”
The attack also caused one dead and two injured and damaged six buildings, according to the governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksionov.
On the Ukrainian side, a Russian strike hit a Kherson railway station, in the south, where more than a hundred civilians were awaiting evacuation, authorities reported. This bombing killed a police officer and injured two civilians and two police officers.
“Kherson, in the evening. Around 140 civilians were waiting at the station for the evacuation train to leave. That’s when the enemy began a massive bombardment of the city,” the minister said on Telegram of the Interior Igor Klymenko.
The strike on a Russian ship marks a success for Ukraine, which seeks to prove that it can keep Moscow’s military fleet from its shores, even if it fails to push back its army on the front.
Its forces managed to keep Russian ships away from the southwest Black Sea and reopen a maritime corridor to export Ukrainian grain, ignoring threats of bombing.
Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the results of this strategy as a “Great victory of Ukraine in the Black Sea“.
If the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is located in Sevastopol, approximately 190 km from Feodosiya, several Russian ships are also deployed in the port of this city, according to Russian media.
Retreat to Marinka
Kyiv’s successful operations in the Black Sea constitute one of its rare successes major military operations in 2023, because its counter-offensive came up against Russian defense lines, and Moscow’s troops intensified their pressure on the Eastern and Southern fronts.
Ukrainian army commander Valery Zaluzhny told reporters that his troops had “moved towards the outskirts of Marinka” and “in certain places,” had gone out of the city.
According to him, Ukrainian soldiers are still in the northern part of Marinka, but his forces have “prepared a defense line outside this locality” to which to retreat.
ADVERTISEMENTRussian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that his army “continues to take more favorable positions and expand the territories it controls in all directions.”
The Ukrainian Air Force, for its part, indicated on Tuesday that the country was the subject of a new night attack by Shahed drones, especially in the Kherson and Odessa regions. Thirteen of the 19 Russian drones were intercepted, according to this source, which did not report any casualties or destruction.
