Ukrainian missile hits Russian Navy headquarters in Crimea

(Patria) - Ukraine hit the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea with a missile on Friday, AP reported.

Russia's Ministry of Defense initially announced that one soldier was killed, but later issued a statement saying he went missing after the attack in the port city of Sevastopol.

The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, has been a frequent target since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine nearly 19 months ago. The attack followed a day after Russia struck cities across Ukraine with missiles and artillery, killing at least five people.

Previous attacks in Crimea have led to the deaths of several civilians, but Russian officials have not yet reported military personnel killed. Six people were reported injured after an attack on the fleet's headquarters in July 2022, but it is unclear whether they were civilians or military personnel.

The Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said no one was injured on Friday in front of the burning headquarters building. The Ukrainian military claimed responsibility for the attack. "We promised there would be more," said Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Air Force, on social media and thanked the pilots, showing a video of smoke rising from the building.

The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Russian air defense systems shot down five missiles.
Oleg Kryuchkov, an official of the Crimean administration, said that a cruise missile shot down near Bakhchysarai, about 30 kilometers inland, caused a grass fire.

Friday's attack is one of several recently launched by Ukraine in the Crimea region. The Institute for the Study of War reported that satellite imagery this week showed that Ukrainian strikes significantly damaged a communication command center in Verkhnosadove, not far from Sevastopol.

Russian authorities in Sevastopol accused Ukraine on September 13 of carrying out the largest attack on Crimea in recent weeks, one targeting a strategic shipyard that damaged two ships under repair and caused a fire at the facility.

Two days earlier, Ukraine claimed to have recaptured strategic oil and gas extraction platforms in the Black Sea that Russia had seized in 2015. Russia had used the platforms for electronic warfare equipment and for helicopter takeoffs, and Ukraine said regaining control of them would help it retake Crimea.