After weeks of Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian cities and towns, Kyiv appears to have landed a major counterpunch, hitting the Russian Black Sea fleet off the coast of Crimea.
“Ukraine has carried out a ‘massive’ drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, damaging one warship,” the BBC reported citing Russian sources. “Nine drones were used, a top official said. Ukraine has not commented,” the broadcaster added.
Saturday’s drone strike was the biggest Ukrainian attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in six months when they sank the flagship cruiser Moskva on April 14.
The French TV channel Euronews reported the details of the drone strike citing Russian sources:
The Russian-installed governor of the city of Sevastopol described a drone attack early on Saturday on Russian Black Sea fleet installations as the most “massive” of the conflict in Ukraine.”The most massive attack by drones and remotely piloted surface vehicles on the waters of the Bay of Sevastopol in the history of the conflict took place last night,” Mikhail Razvojaev was quoted as saying by the TASS agency.Earlier, Razvojaev said the Russian navy had repelled a drone attack, saying no facilities had been hit and the situation was under control. All the drones involved in the attack had been “shot down”, Razvojaev added on Telegram.The port of Sevastopol was “temporarily” closed to ships and ferries after the attack, the city’s authorities said.
The attack on the Russian fleet may have been carried out by “airborne and underwater drones,” the British newspaper Guardian suggested.
The Russian military claims to have recovered one of the underwater drone used in the attack which allegedly contained Canadian parts. The public broadcaster France24 reported:
Russia on Sunday alleged that some of the drones used to attack its fleet in Crimea had “Canadian-made navigation modules”, saying it had recovered debris from some of the weapons in the sea.Moscow’s defence ministry said its specialists had “conducted an examination of Canadian-made navigation modules installed on the marine unmanned vehicles”.
The Ukrainian counterstrike comes after Russia unleashed a barrage of Iranian-made suicide drones, primarily targeting power stations and energy infrastructure ahead of the winter months.
“Earlier this month, Moscow intensified its missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s power stations, waterworks and other key infrastructure, damaging 40% of Ukraine’s electric system and forcing the government to implement rolling blackouts. Kyiv’s mayor said the Ukrainian capital’s power system was operating in ’emergency mode’,” the Associated Press noted Sunday.
Russia on Saturday accused the British Navy of carrying out last month’s undersea explosions that destroyed its Baltic Sea pipelines to western Europe.
Moscow “accused personnel from Britain’s Royal Navy of helping Ukraine to plan the alleged attack on its fleet at Sevastopol, and of involvement in the explosions which blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last month – giving no evidence for either claim,” The UK daily Independent reported Sunday.
On September 26, Russia reported that its 760-mile Baltic Sea pipelines to Germany were rapidly losing pressure. Four massive leaks were found in the undersea natural gas pipelines. The incident was later attributed to large explosions most likely caused by an act of sabotage, German and European investigators concluded.
The Irish Times newspaper reported the latest Russian allegations:
Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday said that British navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month, directly accusing a leading Nato member of sabotaging critical Russian infrastructure.The defence ministry did not give evidence for its claim.“According to available information, representatives of this unit of the British navy took part in the planning, provision and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26th this year – blowing-up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines,” the ministry said.
British government rejected the Russian claims. Sky News (UK) reported:
Britain has denied Russian claims that Royal Navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month, saying the story is “invented”.A Ministry of Defence tweet said: “To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale.”This invented story says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West.”
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