A drone has struck Russian naval headquarters in Crimea, the latest in a series of setbacks for Moscow in the region during its war in Ukraine.
The incident took place at the fortified base of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol on Saturday morning.
The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) was shot down, according to officials in the Russian-controlled area, and landed on the roof of a building. The resulting fire sent huge plumes of smoke into the air.
A large fireball erupts at an ammunition depot in Crimea in an earlier attack
Within hours, heavy traffic jams were reported on the roads of Sevastopol, which is the largest city on the Crimean peninsula and a key port and naval base.
It came a day after explosions erupted near military bases in Russian-held areas of Ukraine and even in Russia itself, in an apparent display of Kyiv’s growing ability to strike Russian assets far away of the front line.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the pro-Russian mayor of Sevastopol, wrote on his Telegram channel: “They shot down a UAV right above the fleet headquarters. It fell on the roof and caught fire… Well done guys.” No there were casualties, he said.
Russian official Oleg Kryuchkov posted on Telegram that “small drone attacks continue” in several places in Crimea and urged civilians to remain calm. “The objective is not military but psychological,” he wrote. “The explosives are minimal and cannot cause significant damage.”
The headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol
(AFP via Getty)
It was unclear where the drone had come from, and the Ukrainian armed forces have not said they were behind the strike. A defense analyst said the attack appeared to have been carried out by an armed, commercially acquired drone.
Earlier this week, Moscow installed a new commander of its Black Sea fleet following a series of setbacks. Late last month, another drone strike hit the same site and injured six people, prompting Russia to beef up its defenses in Crimea.
A satellite image shows the Saki air base on the Crimean peninsula after an explosion there on Wednesday
(AP)
There were also huge explosions at an airbase in Crimea last week. In a new assessment, a Western official said the incident had disabled half of Russia’s Black Sea naval aviation force in one fell swoop.
Another explosion was reported this week at an airbase in Belbek, near Sevastopol. At the opposite end of the peninsula, the sky also lit up in Kerch, near a huge bridge to Russia, where Moscow said it had shot down a drone.
Inside Russia, two villages were evacuated after explosions at an ammunition dump in Belgorod province, more than 62 miles from territory controlled by Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian authorities have not publicly claimed responsibility for the attacks in Crimea or inside Russia, although they still hint that they were carried out with long-range weapons or sabotage.
Non-operational Russian military equipment in Sevastopol
(AFP via Getty)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked US President Joe Biden for another $775 million military aid package. “We have taken another important step to defeat the aggressor,” he tweeted.
In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, a peninsula on the upper Black Sea and a popular holiday destination for Russians, from Ukraine.