KYIV: Ukraine said on Tuesday its forces had destroyed a Russian military patrol ship in the Black Sea near annexed Crimea, the latest naval attack on Moscow’s fleet in the key waterway.

Kyiv also said it was behind a drone strike on an oil depot in a Russian border region.

Ukraine is flexing its ability to strike Russia from the air and at sea while its troops struggle on the front lines. The Black Sea has been a vital battleground in the two-year war.

Ukraine claims to have destroyed more than two dozen Russian ships since Moscow invaded in February 2022. Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence unit on Tuesday released a black and white video of what it said was the overnight attack on the Sergei Kotov, a 94-metre (308-foot) Russian military patrol ship.

The footage showed a naval drone approaching the side of the vessel, before a large explosion can be seen sending fire, smoke and debris into the sky. “Another very successful operation. Great news,” said GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov.

The attack happened near the Kerch Strait, off the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow unilaterally annexed in 2014. Officials in Kyiv revelled in the hit, a much-needed boost for Ukrainian forces at a time when Russia is in the ascendancy on the battlefield.

“One Russian ship has been upgraded to a submarine,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said in an ironic post on X. Delays to Western aid — a $60-billion US aid package and European artillery shells — have left Ukraine’s troops outnumbered and outgunned across the sprawling front lines.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged Kyiv’s allies not to be “cowards” in helping them fight the Russian invasion. He said he “fully stood behind” controversial remarks he made last week, in which he did not rule out the possibility of Western troops being sent to Ukraine.

‘Symbol of occupation’

There was no official response from Moscow about the overnight strike but it was confirmed by Russian military bloggers with close ties to the armed forces. Some were scornful of the Russian navy’s inability to defend itself. Pro-war Russian military blogger Yuri Podolyak on Tuesday accused Moscow’s military leaders of being in “ostrich mode” — having their heads buried in the sand — over yet another successful Ukrainian attack in the Black Sea.

Kyiv says it has disabled at least 25 Russian vessels since Moscow invaded — more than a third of its pre-war Black Sea fleet. “Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is a symbol of occupation. It cannot be in Ukrainian Crimea,” the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Tuesday.

Moscow has moved many military ships from its historic Sevastopol naval base in Crimea to the port of Novorossiysk further to the east, amid the spate of Ukrainian attacks.

A Ukrainian intelligence source said its forces were also behind a drone strike on an oil depot in the Russian border region of Belgorod on Tuesday that set storage tanks ablaze. In the neighbouring Kursk region of Russia, authorities said an artillery strike triggered a fire at the Glushkovo railway station and cut off power to a nearby village.

‘Cowards’

On land, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Moscow’s forces were “continuing to press the enemy westwards”, seeking to build on the capture of Avdiivka last month.

Meanwhile, Berlin said “individual error” was behind the leak of confidential military talks in which air force officials discussed the potential impact of sending long-range missiles to Ukraine.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2024