Ukraine claimed that it carried out a naval drone assault concentrating on a Russian warship within the Black Sea port of Novorissiysk on Friday.
The assault was confirmed by Moscow, however its Defense Ministry claimed no injury had been precipitated, regardless of movies and pictures displaying the opposite.
The strike on the ship Olenegorski Gornyak, which means Olenegorsk Miner, was an awesome loss for the Russian fleet, HUR navy intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov instructed Ukrainian state TV’s Russian-language international channel Freedom.
“For Ukraine, this is good and just news,” he mentioned on Friday. “This will continue.”
Yusov pressured that these touchdown ships have been a strategic threat for Ukraine. The port metropolis of Novorossiysk, positioned within the Krasnodar area, is a base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and an essential location for oil exports.
Russia reportedly makes use of this sort of ship to move troops and materials to the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
An earlier video of the operation confirmed a naval drone belonging to Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service, loaded with 450 kilograms of explosives, attacking a Russian ship. The ship reportedly had a crew of about 100, in response to a number of media retailers which cited a Ukrainian informant.
The video launched on Twitter reveals the assault from the drone’s perspective till it collides with the ship.
It was reportedly a joint operation between the SBU and Ukrainian Navy, media in Kyiv additional reported.
Ukraine doesn’t have a robust navy. However, final yr it sank the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Moskva. More not too long ago, Kyiv has additionally used unmanned explosive boats towards Russian targets.
Later photographs confirmed the Olenegorski Gornyak, commissioned in 1976, mendacity tilted on its facet in Novorossiysk Bay.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which hundreds oil in Novorossiysk, mentioned earlier that delivery had been quickly suspended.
Yusov added that the incident represented a “tragedy” for Russian propaganda. The Russian Defense Ministry had earlier claimed that the assault had been repelled, however movies present the drone hitting the ship and pictures present it tipped on its facet.
Even pro-war Russian navy bloggers printed pictures and movies of the ship on its facet and wrote concerning the injury.
Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to the Ukrainian presidential workplace in Kyiv, mentioned on Friday that Ukrainian naval drones would fully change “the rules of the game.”
The Russian naval presence within the Black Sea “will be put to an end,” he mentioned. In the longer term, he added, Ukraine would guarantee “freedom and security in the Black Sea for world trade.”
More than 17 months after the beginning of Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the scenario within the Black Sea is especially tense after Moscow canceled an settlement to permit for the export of Ukrainian grain a couple of weeks in the past.
Since then, the Russian military has repeatedly bombarded Ukrainian coastal areas, severely damaging port infrastructure and meals storage amenities.
Moreover, the British Ministry of Defense mentioned Friday that Russia is taking dangers to forestall grain exports from Ukraine.
Russia not too long ago used Iranian kamikaze drones to focus on websites solely 200 meters from the Romanian border, the place NATO territory begins. “Russia has evolved its risk appetite for conducting strikes near NATO territory,” mentioned British intelligence specialists.
The intention of those assaults is to drive worldwide delivery to cease commerce via Ukrainian Danube ports, they added.
A grain silo within the port of Izmail on the Danube was destroyed not too long ago.
Russia’s Defence Ministry in the meantime posted a video on Friday of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visiting Russian troops in Ukraine. The video reveals him in a helicopter chatting with different officers.
He is reportedly mentioned to have visited a Russian military group often called “Centre” headed by Commander Andrei Mordvichev.
It was not identified precisely the place and when the footage was taken. The ministry had printed footage of Shoigu’s travels earlier than, which have been later analyzed by specialists and mentioned to have occurred earlier.
On the bottom, Kyiv’s forces have made additional features within the territory close to the Russian-controlled metropolis of Bakhmut, in response to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.
“On the southern flank, despite heavy artillery fire and mines, our forces continue to advance step by step,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar mentioned on Telegram on Friday.
The General Staff reviews counsel that the Klishchiivka village, south of Bakhmut, is not absolutely below Russian management.
Ukrainian forces additionally repelled Russian assaults north of Bakhmut and within the areas of Kupiansk, Lyman and Svatove on the borders between the japanese Ukrainian areas of Luhansk, Kharkiv and Donetsk.
“Heavy fighting is taking place,” Maliar mentioned. The Russian navy is aiming to reclaim areas misplaced final yr. The Ukrainian military, she added, was persevering with its advance on the southern Ukrainian entrance traces regardless of “fierce resistance.”
Mines and concrete fortifications have been reported.
Source: www.dailysabah.com