KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces have attacked the port of Sevastopol on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
A large Russian landing ship and a submarine were hit during the night, Andriy Yusov from Ukrainian military intelligence told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday. There will be no comment on the means used. The Russian side also confirmed the shelling and spoke of an attack on the Sevastopol Sea, where ships and submarines of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are built and repaired.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on the short message service Telegram that Ukraine had attacked the Sevastopol shipyard in Crimea with ten cruise missiles. Three high-speed boats were also in use. Seven cruise missiles were intercepted by Russian air defense and all Ukrainian boats were destroyed by a Russian patrol ship. “Two ships that were being repaired were damaged by the impact of enemy cruise missiles,” the ministry said.
The Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, Mikhail Razvoshayev, had previously stated on Telegram that the shipyard had caught fire during the Ukrainian shelling. At least 24 people were injured. The Black Sea Fleet has carried out countless attacks on Ukraine with drones and missiles.
Russia annexed Ukrainian Crimea in 2014, which is not internationally recognized. At that time, mass protests against the pro-Russian President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, on the Maidan, the central square in Kiev, turned violent. Yanukovych fled and was deposed by parliament. Within days, armed men occupied the regional parliament in Crimea and raised the Russian flag. The government in Moscow annexed the peninsula following a referendum in March 2014. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that the goal is to bring not only the Russian-occupied areas on the mainland but also the Crimean peninsula back under Ukrainian control.
Sevastopol in Crimea, which Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev left to Ukraine in 1954, has been the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet since the 18th century.
(Report by: Tom Balmforth; written by Sabine Ehrhardt, edited by Kerstin Dörr. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and economics) or [email protected] (for companies and markets)