KYIV – In a remarkable overnight mission, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian anti-ship missiles, airborne drones, and maritime drones launched a coordinated assault on a significant Russian naval hub along the Black Sea coast.
Since Russia’s incursion over four years ago, Kyiv has been innovating advanced drones that have persistently attacked Russian vessels in the Black Sea, targeting a mix of warships and oil tankers. The Black Sea holds strategic coastlines for both nations.
According to Kyiv’s representatives, Ukraine’s uncrewed naval forces have substantially restricted the operations of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which was once considered formidable. This achievement is one of Ukraine’s significant triumphs in the conflict.
Ukrainian authorities, however, remain mindful of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s determination to continue the conflict, even as his forces face slow, expensive progress on the front lines, amidst U.S. efforts for a peaceful resolution.
Zelenskyy revealed on social media on Tuesday night that intelligence from Ukraine suggests Putin is gearing up for “an additional rapid mobilization” of hundreds of thousands of Russian troops as the year draws to a close.
Ukraine says it hit Black Sea port infrastructure
The Ukrainian military “carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post Wednesday.
The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure in the Krasnodar region city, he added.
Krasnodar region Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the region 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 U.S. State Department expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they have impacted U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
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