Russia on Friday accused Ukraine of a missile strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea, as Kiev strives to take the fight to this key peninsula for military operations Russians.
This Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 and the city of Sevastopol, where the targeted naval headquarters is located, are at the heart of the Russian military system for its offensive against Ukraine, both to supply the troops occupying southern Ukraine. and to carry out missile strikes.
“The enemy carried out a missile attack on the fleet headquarters,” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram.
He specified that an assessment of potential victims was “in the process of being established” and that debris had fallen near a nearby theater.
For fear of a new attack, the official first called on residents to “stay inside buildings”, before finally lifting the alert early in the afternoon.
Debris is visible for several hundred meters and numerous ambulances are heading to the site, according to a correspondent from the Russian news agency TASS present on site.
Ukraine has increased drone and missile strikes in Crimea in recent weeks, claiming the destruction in particular of anti-aircraft defense systems, a shipyard and two ships.
The Ukrainian armed forces want to both disrupt the Russian supply chain and end Russia’s military control over the Black Sea.
Its successes demonstrate the difficulties of Russian anti-aircraft defense, while Ukraine, in the midst of a counter-offensive to liberate its territories, tries to disorganize the Russian defense by attacking its supply lines and command centers far behind the line. head on.
Earlier on Friday, Russian authorities announced without explanation that all passenger maritime transport was suspended. sine dieuntil further notice, from Sevastopol.
The Russian Defense Ministry then assured that it had foiled a Ukrainian attack by destroying a guided missile and two drones targeting Crimea.
The headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet had already been the target of a drone attack in August 2022, which left six people injured.
Pressure on the eastern front
Russian occupation authorities in Donetsk also said Friday that Ukraine had carried out multiple assaults in the region the day before, increasing pressure on the eastern front.
“Over the past 24 hours, the enemy has carried out a number of actions in the direction of Lyman,” said the head of the Russian occupation of the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, citing several localities.
Lyman is very close to the front line, about fifty kilometers west of Lyssychansk and Severodonetsk, towns under Russian control.
Mr. Pushilin estimated that the situation in Bakhmout, a town devastated by a year of fighting and the target of a Ukrainian counter-offensive, remained “hot”, the area being subjected to “chaotic bombings”.
The Ukrainian army has retaken two localities in recent days – Andriïivka and Klichtchiïvka – and even says it has “pierced” the Russian defense line in this sector.
In the rest of Ukraine, a new Russian salvo of more than 40 cruise missiles on Thursday left three people dead in Kherson, in the south, and seven injured in Kiev, the capital.
National police said on Friday that a total of seven people had died in the Kherson region due to Russian strikes over the past 24 hours.
Russia bombs Ukrainian cities almost every night using missiles and kamikaze drones.