KYIV: Ukraine said on Sunday its navy had struck a salvage ship belonging to Russia’s Black Sea fleet on the annexed Crimean peninsula, putting it out of service.

It did not say where the attack took place, but social media footage purportedly filmed in the Crimean port of Sevastopol showed a ship in flames.

“Today, the Ukrainian Navy hit the Russian salvage ship ‘Kom­muna’ in temporarily occupied Cri­mea,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said.

The Russian navy used the ship for deep-sea work, including raising submarines and sunken cargo, and was one of the oldest in service, Ukraine said. Ukrainian navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said the damage caused by the attack was unclear but that the ship was “no longer capable of performing its tasks”.

Kremlin claims advances near Chasiv Yar as Kyiv hails fresh aid

“This will continue to happen until the Russians run out of ships or leave Crimea,” he said. The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said earlier that Moscow’s military had “repelled an attack by an anti-ship missile” on a vessel at the port.

He did not say which ship was attacked, but said “fallen fragments caused a small fire, which was promptly extinguished.”

Chasiv Yar gains

Russia said on Sunday its forces had gained territory near the key battleground town of Chasiv Yar in east Ukraine, highlighting the pressure facing Kyiv as it gears up to receive $61 billion in new US aid. Russia said it had taken control of Bogdanivka, a small frontline village less than three kilometres (two miles) northeast of Chasiv Yar.

“Units of the southern grouping of troops have completely liberated the settlement of Bogdanivka,” Moscow’s defence ministry said. Chasiv Yar, which had a pre-war population of about 13,000, has been largely destroyed by fighting and most of its residents have fled.

Echoes of Vietnam and Afghanistan wars

Russia said US lawmakers’ support for $60.84 billion more in aid for Ukraine showed that Washington was wading much deeper into a hybrid war against Moscow that would end in humiliation on a par with the Vietnam or Afghanistan conflicts.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was clear that the United States wanted Ukraine “to fight to the last Ukrai­nian” including with attacks on Russian sovereign territory and civilians.

“Washington’s deeper and deeper immersion in the hybrid war against Russia will turn into a loud and humiliating fiasco for United States such as Vietnam and Afghanistan,” Zakharova said.

The decision by the US House of Representatives to earmark $61 billion in long-delayed aid for Ukraine shows the country will not become “a second Afghanistan,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.“This aid will strengthen Ukraine and send the Kremlin a powerful signal that it will not be the second Afghanistan,” Zelensky said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The United States will stay with Ukraine, will protect Ukrainians, and... they’ll protect democracy in the world,” he added.

The Kremlin has sought to play down the impact of the new US aid, arguing it would only deepen Washington’s “immersion” in the war.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2024