Moscow accused Kiev on Friday of launching a missile attack that led to the loss of at least one person at the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet in the annexed Crimean Peninsula, at a time when Ukraine is trying to move the battle to the strategic peninsula.
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The Ukrainian peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and the city of Sevastopol, where the targeted naval headquarters is located, are at the heart of the Russian military regime’s offensive against Ukraine, both to supply and carry out the forces occupying southern Ukraine. Missile strikes.
Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozaev wrote in a telegram: “The enemy carried out a missile attack on the fleet headquarters.”
After initially announcing that a soldier had been killed in this strike, the Russian Defense Ministry clarified that he was in fact missing. He said the building was “damaged.”
Governor Razvoyev had previously announced that the fire was burning and that the “fight against the fire” was continuing.
The wreckage can be seen several hundred meters away, and several ambulances are heading to the site, according to a TASS correspondent on the scene.
Fearing a new attack, Mikhail Razvoyev first called on residents to “stay inside the buildings”, before finally raising the alert in the early afternoon.
Five missiles were also shot down over the Crimean Peninsula, according to the Russian army.
Russian authorities also announced a few hours after the attack that Crimea had been subjected to an “unprecedented” cyberattack against Internet service providers, causing a service outage.
“We are in the process of fixing the internet outage on the peninsula,” Oleg Kryuchko, an advisor to the Russian-appointed leader on the peninsula, said on the Telegram app, without indicating whether this computer attack was directly related to the strikes.
Ukraine has intensified its drone and missile strikes in Crimea in recent weeks, claiming to have destroyed anti-aircraft defense systems, a shipyard and two ships in particular.
The Ukrainian armed forces want to disrupt the Russian supply chain and end Russian military control of the Black Sea.
These successes demonstrate the difficulties faced by the Russian anti-aircraft defense, while Ukraine, in the midst of a counteroffensive to liberate its territory, is trying to confuse the Russian defense by attacking its supply lines and command centers far from the front line.
Earlier on Friday, the Russian authorities announced, without explanation, the suspension of all sea transportation of passengers from Sevastopol indefinitely, until further notice.
The Russian Ministry of Defense subsequently confirmed that it had thwarted a Ukrainian attack by destroying a guided missile and two drones that targeted the Crimean Peninsula.
The headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet had already been subjected to a drone attack in August 2022, which resulted in six people being injured.
