![Ukraine strikes Russian naval targets in Crimean city of Sevastopol](https://globalnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Crimea-Russia-attacks.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&w=720&h=379&crop=1)
Ukraine strikes Russian naval targets in Crimean city of Sevastopol
Global News
The attack highlighted Kyiv's growing missile capabilities as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine from afar with long-range missiles and assault drones.
Ukraine said it struck Russian naval targets and port infrastructure early on Wednesday in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, in what appeared to be the biggest attack of the war on the home of the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet.
The strike on Crimea, which was seized and annexed by Russia in 2014, was confirmed by Moscow. It highlighted Kyiv’s growing missile capabilities as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine from afar with long-range missiles and assault drones.
“We confirm a large landing vessel and submarine were hit. We do not comment on the means (used) for the strike,” Ukrainian military intelligence official Andriy Yusov told Reuters, giving no further details on the scale of the damage.
Russia’s defence ministry said in statement that Ukraine had attacked a Black Sea shipyard with 10 cruise missiles and three uncrewed speedboats in the early hours, damaging two military vessels that had been undergoing repairs.
It said it downed seven of the incoming missiles and that the attack boats had been destroyed by a Russian patrol ship.
An image circulated online and verified by Reuters showed a docked vessel that had sustained serious damage.
“It really is the biggest attack on Sevastopol since the beginning of the war,” retired Ukrainian navy captain Andriy Ryzhenko told Reuters by telephone.
The city is home to the Black Sea Fleet which the Kremlin uses to project power into the Middle East and Mediterranean and – during the war in Ukraine – to impose a de facto blockade on Ukraine’s seaborne food exports via the Turkish straits.