Michelle ThompsonAP — KYIV, Ukraine According to military sources on both sides of the conflict and photos from the site in Crimea, Ukraine fired missiles at the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters on Friday, leaving one serviceman missing and the main structure on fire.
Following the incident in the port city of Sevastopol, the Russian Defense Ministry first stated that one service member was killed before issuing a statement stating that he was missing.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a full-scale invasion of Ukraine about 19 months ago, the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegitimately stole from Ukraine in 2014, has frequently been targeted.
The main base supporting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been Crimea. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Sevastopol, the primary base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the 19th century, has been particularly significant for navy operations.
According to the Institute for the Study of War’s daily analysis of the conflict published on Thursday, Ukraine has been targeting naval installations in Crimea more frequently in recent weeks as the bulk of its summer counteroffensive makes modest progress in the east and south of the country. According to military analysts, Ukraine must continue its long-range attacks on Russian military installations in Crimea in order to lower morale and weaken its adversary.
Several civilians have died in previous strikes, but no military personnel have been reported slain by Russian authorities as of yet. Following an attack on the fleet’s headquarters in July 2022, six people were reportedly hurt, but it wasn’t immediately apparent if they were civilians or service members.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the newly-installed Russian governor of Sevastopol, said on Friday that no one was hurt outside the blazing headquarters building, but he gave no more details. More emergency personnel were being sent in as firefighters fought the blaze, a sign that it might be very large.
The attack was attributed to the Ukrainian military, which declared it a success.
“There will be more,” we vowed. The head of the air force, Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk, congratulated the pilots in a social media post that included a video of the building smoking and blazing air sirens.
In response to the attack on Sevastopol, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that five missiles were shot down by Russian air defense systems. It was not immediately known if the headquarters had been hit directly or by missile debris that had been deflected.
Russian news outlets stated that inhabitants of Sevastopol reported hearing explosions, seeing smoke, and seeing gray plumes over the waterfront. The videos could not be immediately verified by The Associated Press.
The fleet’s command center was surrounded by shrapnel and a steady stream of ambulances, according to a report from the Russian state news outlet Tass.
One cruise missile that was shot down close to Bakhchysarai, around 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) inland, according to Oleg Kryuchkov, a representative of the Crimean government, started a grass fire.
Although Razvozhayev claimed there was no damage to civic infrastructure, he made no mention of what had happened to the navy headquarters.
He originally cautioned Sevastopol citizens against leaving their homes or going to the city center, saying that another attack was possible. Later, he said that there was no longer a threat of an air strike, but he maintained the advice not to enter the city’s central area, claiming that highways were closed and that unnamed “special efforts” were in progress.
According to Tass, police advised locals to leave the city’s center.
The alleged assault occurred a day after Russian artillery and missiles bombarded Ukrainian cities, killing at least five people. At the time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Washington, D.C., meeting with congressional leaders and discussing an additional $24 billion in aid.
The strike on Friday is one of many that Ukraine has recently carried out in the region of Crimea.
An information command center in Verkhnosadove, close to Sevastopol, was severely destroyed by Ukrainian strikes, according to satellite imagery this week, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
On September 13, authorities established by Russia in Sevastopol accused Ukraine of carrying out the largest attack on Crimea in weeks, one that damaged two ships that were being repaired and started a fire inside the port.
Two days before, Ukraine asserted that it had reclaimed vital Black Sea gas and oil drilling sites that Russia had taken control of in 2015. Ukraine claimed that taking control of the platforms would help it retake Crimea from Russia, which had been using them to launch helicopters and deploy electronic warfare equipment.
According to Oleksandr Prokudin, the regional governor, continuing shelling in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine has resulted in the deaths of one man and injuries to another.
He wrote on Telegram that Kherson had been restless since the morning.
A residential building and a garage caught fire as a result of Russian shelling.
Oleh Synyehubov, the regional governor for Kharkiv, claimed that fourteen settlements had been attacked. In the Chuguyiv district of Vovchansk, a house sustained damage and caught fire. The governor said there were no casualties.
Emily Martinez
