KYIV: Ukraine claimed Sunday (Mar 24) to have hit two Russian military ships stationed at the annexed peninsula of Crimea in overnight strikes, as it suffered another night of “massive” Russian aerial attacks.
And Ukraine’s ally and neighbour Poland said a Russian cruise missile headed for western Ukraine briefly breached its airspace overnight after it had put its armed forces on high alert amid intense Russian aviation activity.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces successfully struck the amphibious landing ships Yamal and Azov, a communications centre, and a number of the Black Sea Fleet’s infrastructure sites,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ strategic communications centre said Sunday.
Moscow-installed officials on the peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, said their forces had repelled a major Ukrainian aerial attack late Saturday night.
“It was the most massive attack in recent times,” the Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said in a Telegram post.
He said a 65-year-old man was killed and four people injured. He did not mention any damage to Russian warships.
Footage shared on social media showed a large blast in the city, sending a fireball and plume of black smoke into the air, as well as what appeared to be Russian air defences intercepting incoming projectiles.
Ukraine has claimed to have destroyed around a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the start of the war, usually in attacks at night using sea-based drones packed with explosives.
Satellite images show Russia has moved much of the fleet further east, to the port of Novorossiysk, amid the spate of attacks.
Moscow also recently replaced its navy chief.
Source: CNA
