The Black Sea has been an important battlefield in the two-year war. (representative)
Kiev, Ukraine:
Ukraine said on Tuesday its troops destroyed a Russian military patrol ship in the Black Sea near annexed Crimea, the latest naval attack on Moscow’s fleet in the key waterway.
Kiev also said it was behind a drone attack on an oil depot on the Russian border, as Ukrainian forces fought on the front lines to demonstrate their ability to strike Russia from the air and sea.
The Black Sea has been an important battlefield in the two-year war.
Ukraine claims to have destroyed more than two dozen Russian ships since Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence service on Tuesday released a black-and-white video it said showed a nighttime attack on the 94-meter (308-foot) Russian military patrol ship Sergei Kotov.
Video showed a Navy drone approaching the side of the ship before a massive explosion sent flames, smoke and debris into the sky.
GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov said: “Another very successful operation. Good news.”
The attack took place near the Kerch Strait, near the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
Officials in Kiev were excited about the attack, which gave Moscow a much-needed boost for its military in a superior position on the battlefield.
“A Russian ship has been upgraded to a submarine,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a sarcastic post on the X website.
Delays in Western aid – a $60 billion U.S. aid package and European artillery shells – have left Ukrainian forces outnumbered and outgunned across a vast frontline.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday called on Kiev’s allies not to be “cowards” in helping them fight a Russian invasion.
‘Symbol of Occupation’
There was no official response from Moscow, but a Russian military blog with close ties to the armed forces confirmed the attack.
Some derided the Russian navy’s inability to defend itself.
Pro-war Russian military blogger Yuri Podolyak on Tuesday accused Moscow’s military leaders of adopting “ostrich mode” – burying their heads in the sand – in response to another successful attack on Ukraine in the Black Sea.
The Dva Mayora Telegram channel said the crew had been evacuated and survived, but some were injured.
Kiev says it has disabled at least 25 Russian ships – more than a third of its pre-war Black Sea fleet – since Moscow’s invasion.
“The Russian Black Sea Fleet is a symbol of occupation. It cannot be present in Ukraine’s Crimea,” Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andrei Yermak said on Tuesday.
Moscow has moved many warships from the historic Sevastopol naval base in Crimea to the port of Novorossiysk further east due to a series of attacks in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian intelligence source also told AFP that the country’s military carried out a drone strike on an oil depot in the Belgorod region on the Russian border on Tuesday, causing the tanks to catch fire.
The Russian governor had previously reported an “explosion” and an “infrastructure fire on site” but gave no further details. Videos posted on social media showed black smoke billowing into the air and at least one tank on fire.
In Russia’s neighboring Kursk region, authorities said a shelling caused a fire at Glushkovo train station and cut power to nearby villages.
“coward”
On land, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that his forces were “continuing to pressure the enemy westward” as they sought to advance after capturing Avdiivka last month.
Meanwhile, Berlin said “individual errors” were behind the leak of classified military talks in which air force officials discussed the potential impact of launching long-range missiles into Ukraine.
Moscow said the leaked recordings showed Ukraine’s Western allies were directly involved in the conflict.
France’s Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday called on Ukraine’s Western backers to “live up to history” and show “courage” in supporting Kiev.
“For Europe, we are certainly facing a moment when we must not be cowards,” he said during a visit to the Czech Republic.
His comments came as the European Union unveiled an ambitious proposal to massively increase arms production and procurement to reduce reliance on U.S. weapons and in response to Russia’s invasion.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
