Ukrainian anti-ship missiles, jet-powered aerial drones and naval drones hit a key Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast in what President Volodymyr Zelensky described Wednesday as a “unique” overnight operation.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than four years ago, Kyiv has developed increasingly advanced drones that have repeatedly been used against Russian vessels in the Black Sea, from warships to oil tankers. Both Ukraine and Russia have coastlines along the sea.
Ukrainian officials say the country’s uncrewed naval fleet has helped restrict the movements of Russia’s Black Sea navy, once a dominant force in the region, making it one of Kyiv’s most significant wartime achievements.
At the same time, Ukrainian leaders believe Russian President Vladimir Putin remains determined to continue the war, despite the heavy costs and slow gains of his larger army on the front line and ongoing US diplomatic efforts aimed at reaching a settlement.
Zelensky said late Tuesday on social media, citing Ukrainian intelligence, that Putin is preparing “an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year.”
Ukraine says it hit Black Sea port infrastructure
In a separate social media post Wednesday, Zelensky said Ukraine’s military had “carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.”
According to Zelensky, the strike hit air defense systems, piers and other port facilities in the Krasnodar region city.
Krasnodar region Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said hundreds of Ukrainian drones targeted Novorossiysk, Anapa, Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district overnight.
Russian air defenses downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.
In Novorossiysk, an eight-year old child was killed in the attack, and a person wounded when his house in the Temryuk region was hit later died in hospital, Kondratyev said. He added that 12 other people in the region were wounded.
Debris from downed drones fell on the territory of four industrial plants and 21 residential buildings, according to Kondratyev, but officials gave no details of any damage.
Novorossiysk is also home to a key international oil terminal.
The Grushovaya oil transshipment complex near Novorossiysk is one of the largest transshipment hubs in southern Russia for oil and petroleum products.
Last February, the US State Department expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they have impacted US oil interests in Kazakhstan.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk.
The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major US energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.
In illegally annexed Crimea, air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones over Sevastopol overnight, the city’s Russia-appointed head Mikhail Razvozhayev said, adding that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged.
Russian drone attacks kill 2 and destroy a shopping mall
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that Russia fired 138 long-range strike drones as well as an unspecified number of missiles at Ukraine during the night.
Damage was recorded at 16 locations across the country, it said.
In the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, a large-scale Russian drone attack overnight killed two people and wounded two others, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said Wednesday.
The attacks also destroyed a shopping mall in the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia, according to authorities.
