Ukraine launches land and sea drone attacks on major Crimean navy port
Ukraine has launched land and sea drone attacks on the major Crimean navy port of Sevastopol.
The Russian defence ministry said two aerial drones were shot down over the Black Sea, while five were intercepted and jammed by Russia’s “electronic warfare” teams.
Two underwater drones were also discovered in the northern part of the Black Sea, and destroyed, the ministry said, adding that there were no casualties and no damage.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian governor of Sevastopol, later said on Telegram that another drone had been “deactivated”.
Sevastopol is a port and home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet. There are frequent drone attacks in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to take back the peninsula and the main thrust of Ukraine’s counter-offensive appears to be heading south to cut off Russia from a mainland corridor to Crimea.
Maritime transport, including passenger ferries, was suspended for several hours early on Sunday, the city’s Moscow-backed transport authorities said on their Telegram channel.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv on the attack. Ukraine almost never publicly comments on attacks, but has been saying in recent months that destroying Russia’s military infrastructure helps Kyiv’s counter-offensive.
It comes as a Russian official claimed that Ukrainian forces had shelled the Russian town of Shebekino near the Ukrainian border with Grad missiles, killing a woman riding her bike.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, Belgorod’s governor, claimed the missiles had struck a market area, damaging a building and two cars.
“Too much grief, one person was killed – a woman was riding a bicycle on the pavement at the time of the shelling. Injuries she received from shrapnel were incompatible with life,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said a civilian was killed and another wounded in Russian shelling in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, while seven others were injured in a village in Zaporizhzhia.
