(Moscow) Kyiv claimed Friday a “successful strike” on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet, in annexed Crimea, which left at least one missing, at a time when Ukraine is trying to take the fight to the in this strategic peninsula.
What there is to know
- The Russian Black Sea Fleet is based in the port of Sevastopol. A Ukrainian strike took place on the headquarters.
- The Ukrainian army attempts breakthroughs in the occupied East;
- The Kremlin said an increase in tensions between Ukraine and its European allies was “inevitable”, reacting to the ongoing heated dispute between Kyiv and Poland over Ukrainian grain exports;
- Russia has resumed its “energy terror” by attacking essential infrastructure in Ukraine as winter approaches, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal has denounced.
- A ship loaded with wheat has left a Ukrainian port bound for Egypt, Ukrainian authorities announced, stressing that this is the second time this week that a boat has used a maritime corridor set up by Kyiv to circumvent the blockade and Russian threats.
This Ukrainian region 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 invasion of Ukraine, both to supply the troops occupying the South Ukrainian and to carry out missile strikes from the sea.
“The enemy carried out a missile attack on the fleet headquarters,” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram.
The Russian Defense Ministry, which initially announced the death of a soldier, then clarified that he was missing.
The Ukrainian army welcomed this “successful strike against the headquarters of the command of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the temporarily occupied city of Sevastopol”.
The exact extent of the damage is not yet known, but Russian authorities admitted that the building was “damaged”.
Governor Razvojaïev affirmed early in the afternoon that it was in flames and that the “fighting of the fire” was continuing.
The shock wave also broke the windows of ten residential buildings in the city center, but “no one was injured,” he later added.
Around the headquarters, debris was visible for several hundred meters and numerous ambulances were present, according to the Russian agency TASS.
Five missiles were also shot down over Crimea, according to the Russian army.
Disrupt logistics
Oleg Krioutchko, an advisor to the leader installed by Russia on the peninsula, also announced a few hours after the strike that Crimea was hit by an “unprecedented” cyberattack against internet service providers, which caused cuts.
But he did not indicate whether this computer attack was directly linked to the strikes.
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 located there.
The Ukrainian armed forces want to both disrupt the Russian supply chain and end Russia’s military control over the Black Sea.
These successes demonstrate the difficulties of Russian anti-aircraft defense, while Ukraine, in the midst of a counter-offensive to liberate its territories, is trying to disorganize the Russian defense by attacking its supply lines and command centers far behind the front line. .
Earlier on Friday, Russian authorities announced without explanation that all passenger maritime transport was suspended sine die, until 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.
The head of the Russian occupation of the Donetsk region, Denis 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 subjugated 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.
PHOTO SERGEI SUPINSKY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A police expert examines the damage caused to an industrial zone in Kyiv after a massive missile attack on Ukraine on September 21.
In the rest of Ukraine, a rocket attack on the town of Kremenchuk, in the center of the country, left one dead and 15 injured, including a child, the region’s governor announced on Telegram.
“The enemy fired rockets at Kremenchuk. A rocket was shot down by air defense forces. Unfortunately, civilian infrastructure was affected,” said Dmytro Lunin, governor of the Poltava region.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued his North American tour in Canada on Friday. He met Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau there and asked this country, which has a large Ukrainian diaspora, to remain alongside Ukraine “until [sa] victory “.
Mr. Trudeau announced, on this occasion, a new package of aid to Ukraine amounting to 650 million Canadian dollars.
These aid measures, over three years, will include the delivery to Kyiv of some 50 armored vehicles and the training of Ukrainian pilots in F-16 combat planes.
The Kremlin considers the growth of tensions between Kyiv and its European allies “inevitable”
The Kremlin said on Friday that an increase in tensions between Ukraine and its European allies was “inevitable”, reacting to the ongoing heated dispute between Kyiv and Poland over Ukrainian grain exports.
“We predict that these frictions between Warsaw and Kyiv will increase,” Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about Poland’s announcement that it would no longer deliver weapons to the ‘Ukraine.
“We understand that between Kyiv and other European capitals tensions will also increase over time, this is inevitable. And meanwhile we continue our “special military operation” [en Ukraine, NDLR]to fulfill the objectives that we have set for ourselves,” he added.
Poland extended its embargo on Ukrainian grain last week to protect, according to it, the interests of its farmers, sparking an open crisis with Kyiv, although a close partner.
In response, Ukraine lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, which also maintained their restrictions on Ukrainian cereals, although lifted by Brussels.
Poland then announced that it would no longer deliver new weapons to Kyiv, contenting itself with only the previously agreed deliveries and saying it now wanted to concentrate on modernizing its army.
Warsaw is one of Kyiv’s main allies in its armed conflict against Russia and Western military aid mainly passes through its territory.
Russia has restarted its “energy terror” as winter approaches, denounces Kyiv.
Russia has restarted its “energy terror” by attacking essential infrastructure in Ukraine as winter approaches, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Chmygal denounced on Friday.
“The phase of energy terror has already begun,” Chmygal said at an economic forum in Kyiv, as quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“We see it through the destruction of infrastructure” linked to the production and storage of fuels and “the first strikes” against electrical stations “in the last two weeks,” he added.
The head of government, however, estimated that Ukraine was better prepared than the previous winter, when Moscow’s strikes on energy infrastructure regularly plunged millions of people into darkness and cold.
“We are much better prepared and stronger than we were last year” in particular because of supplies of Western air defense systems, he stressed. “The winter will certainly be hard, certainly not easier than the previous one” but “we know what the enemy is preparing and what challenges are ahead of us,” added Mr. Chmygal.
Russia bombs Ukrainian cities almost every night using kamikaze missiles and drones.