Ukraine said it killed high-ranking naval officers in yesterday’s attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. There is no independent confirmation of this. Explosions were also reported today.
According to Ukraine, high-ranking naval officers were killed in the Ukrainian attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on Friday. When the missiles hit, a meeting of the Russian naval leadership was taking place. Dozens of “occupiers” were killed and injured.
“The details of the attack will be revealed as soon as possible,” the military in Kiev said the morning after the attack. The head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said on Friday that at least nine Russians had been killed and 16 others were injured, including generals.
On Friday afternoon, Ukraine attacked the Russian naval base in Crimea. “On September 22, at around 12:00 p.m., the Ukrainian Defense Forces carried out a successful attack on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol,” the press staff of the Ukrainian army said.
Russia reports only one soldier missing
How many people were actually killed or injured in the attack remains unclear. According to Russian information, only one Russian soldier is missing. In the regional Telegram channels there was talk of six people “being harmed”. It is unclear whether this meant dead or injured people. The Moscow-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvoshayev, said there were no casualties among the civilian population.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
The occupation authorities of the peninsula, which has been annexed by Russia since 2014, reported that a fire had broken out as a result of the rocket attack. According to the Russian news agency Tass, debris lay several hundred meters away from the impact after the attack. Many ambulances were on the way to the scene of the accident.
Images on social media showed a thick cloud of smoke. The opposition Telegram channel “Crimeanwind” reported several serious explosions, citing eyewitnesses. A photo shared on Telegram showed severe damage to the naval headquarters.
Hatched: territories occupied by Russia
New explosions reported today too
Authorities also reported new explosions in Sevastopol today. “Attention! Rocket danger!” wrote the Russian occupation chief of the area, Mikhail Razvoshayev, on Telegram this morning. “According to preliminary information, air defense was deployed in Sevastopol.”
Rocket debris fell in the area where the Black Sea Fleet has its main base, Razvoshayev added. He instructed the public to close their windows and stay away from them, get out of cars and public transport and go to a safe place. A little later he declared that the danger was over. On Friday, too, the Russian side initially only spoke of falling rocket debris.
Photos of a cloud of smoke in the sky were shared again on social media. It was also pointed out that there was said to be a Russian ammunition depot in the affected area. The information has not yet been able to be independently verified.
The port of Sevastopol is home to one of Russia’s command centers for Moscow’s war against Ukraine. From there, the Russian occupation troops in the south of Ukraine are supplied and rocket attacks are carried out.