The Russian military has “repelled” a drone attack on Sevastopol Bay, home to Moscow’s Moscow-annexed Black Sea fleet in Crimea, according to a Russian-installed governor, as a war for control of cities in southeastern Ukraine rages. Kherson and Bajmut.
“Today, starting at 4:30 a. m. for several hours, air defense systems in Sevastopol repelled drone strikes,” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Saturday on Telegram. “All drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) have been shot down,” he added.
“Tonight, the largest attack was carried out through drones (unmanned aerial cars) and remotely operated surface vehicles in the waters of Sevastopol Bay” since Moscow introduced its offensive, Razgozhayev told Russian state media later on Saturday.
The attack in Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean peninsula, comes as Ukraine is engaged in a fierce war with Russian forces in the Kherson region, which serves as a gateway to Crimea. Russia annexed Crimea to Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine’s military said Saturday that Russian forces were proceeding to withdraw from Kherson, ahead of an expected advance from Kyiv.
Spokesman for the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Shtupun, said in a normal update on social media that a large number of wounded and health-ill Russian infantrymen had been discharged from hospitals in Kherson, the southern province invaded through Moscow at the start of the war.
Al Jazeera, however, can ascertain the veracity of the Ukrainian military’s claims.
Moscow accused Britain of Ukraine planning a drone attack on its Black Sea fleet in the port of Sevastopol, saying one of its ships suffered “minor” damage.
“The preparation of this terrorist act and the education of the army workers’ corps of the 73rd Special Center for Maritime Operations of Ukraine was carried out under the direction of British specialists located in the city of Ochakiv in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region,” Moscow’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. declaration. Press release on Saturday.
“It should be emphasized that the ships of the Black Sea Fleet that were attacked by terrorists are concerned about the security of the ‘grain corridor’ as a component of a foreign initiative to export agricultural products from Ukrainian ports,” he said.
Since launching their counteroffensive last month, Ukrainian forces have recaptured vast territories from Russian forces, Kharkiv added, forcing the Russians to withdraw. Changes on the battlefield have prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for a partial mobilization of his army and a reorganization of his army leadership.
Last month, a key bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia was partially broken in an explosion that Moscow blamed on Ukraine. Kiev has denied its role in the attack, which prompted Russian retaliation.
Since then, Russia has carried out major airstrikes and drones in Ukraine, damaging more than a third of its electrical infrastructure. On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about 4 million Ukrainians were left without power as a result of the attacks.
Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Kyiv, said the Russian crusade over the past two weeks has been very systematic, targeting smaller substations that move electricity to the grid than giant facilities.
“The recent resumption of movements in the city and the increasing pressure on civilian infrastructure are bringing the war closer and closer,” he said, adding that the restoration of materials is proving complicated because Soviet-era apparatus is difficult to replace.
Meanwhile, Moscow claimed its infantrymen were slowly arriving in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
Taking Bakhmut would break Ukraine’s lines and open a direction for Russian forces to advance towards Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the main Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk province, which, along with Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, were annexed through Moscow last month.
Local authorities said ferries and boats had also stopped crossing Sevastopol Bay, according to Reuters news agency.
“We forgot about plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that exist in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told the official RIA news agency.
Moscow’s forces attacked Ukraine from various directions, adding from Crimea, their invasion in February.
Earlier this week, Razvozhayev said a drone had attacked a thermal power plant near Sevastopol.
The Russian fleet stationed at the port also attacked via drone in July.