Russia says Ukrainian missile strike in Crimea injured 24, damaged navy vessels

Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev in the foreground as firefighters battle a blaze at the Sevastopol Shipyard after it was hit by a Ukrainian missile strike in the early hours of Wednesday. Photo by Mikhail Razvozhayev/EPA-EFE
Sept. 13 (UPI) — A cruise missile strike launched by Ukraine on the Russian Navy’s base in Crimea killed at least 24 people and severely injured several others, Russian-installed authorities said Wednesday. Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev said four of the injured were hospitalized in “moderately severe condition” and that emergency services were battling a blaze at the southern section of the city’s shipyard. Advertisement
“I’m at the fire site at the southern facility of the Sevastopol Shipyard. All emergency services are working in the area. There is no threat to the city’s civilian facilities,” Razvozhayev wrote on social media.
Several targets were reportedly shot down over the coast of the peninsula after flashes of light were reported above Sevastopol at around 3:00 a.m. local time. About 10 explosions were heard.
The strike is thought to have hit an area where Russian naval ships were undergoing repairs, as Ukrainian military intelligence claimed that a large amphibious landing ship and a submarine — both believed to be in dry dock — had been damaged.
Ukraine, which normally declines to confirm or deny attacks for which it is blamed by Moscow, but the country’s air force chief heaped praise on his pilots on social media following the strike and threatened further action.
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Thanking pilots for their “excellent work, Ukraine’s Air Forces commander Mykola Oleschuk, commander warned Moscow there was “more to come.”
Olechuk also fueled speculation that Ukraine may have used British or French-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles in the attack, the first time such weapons have been used against targets inside Russian territory, due to his use of the phrase “storming” in his post.
In August, British military intelligence confirmed that Ukrainian sea drones attacked and damaged another Russian Navy landing ship warship in the Black Sea.
The 371-foot-long Olenegorsky Gornyak was “seriously damaged” in the Aug. 5 overnight raid which left the vessel listing at at 30 or 40 degrees, indicating one or more explosions had breached watertight doors and compartments.