Russia claims Ukraine struck Black Sea Fleet HQ, Kiev denies attack
- Sevastopol governor was quoted by Russian media as saying as many as 6 people were wounded when a drone flew into the courtyard at the headquarters
- Ukraine said heavy Russian strikes hit southern cities overnight and early on Sunday, and thousands still exposed to fierce fighting in Donbas region
.png?itok=arIb17P0)
Ukrainian forces struck the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Russian-held Sevastopol early on Sunday, the Crimean port city’s governor said, while Ukraine reported heavy Russian attacks against two southern cities.
Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev was quoted by Russian media as saying six members of staff were wounded in the attack when what was presumed to be a drone flew into the courtyard at the headquarters.
The attack coincided with Russia’s Navy Day, which President Vladimir Putin marked by announcing that the Russian navy would receive what he called “formidable” hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in the next few months. Hypersonic weapons can travel at nine times the speed of sound. He did not mention Ukraine directly.
But a spokesman for Ukraine’s Odessa region military administration denied Kyiv – whose nearest positions are some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away – was responsible and called the incident “a sheer provocation”.
“Our liberation of Crimea from the occupiers will be carried out in another way and much more effectively,” spokesman Sergiy Bratchuk wrote on Telegram.
Russia says it invited UN, Red Cross experts to probe jail deaths in Ukraine
Authorities in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv said Sunday that widespread Russian bombardments overnight had left at least two civilians dead, as Moscow continued to pummel the sprawling front line.
At least three people were wounded when 12 missiles hit homes and educational facilities, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych told Ukrainian television, earlier describing the strikes as “probably the most powerful” on the city of the entire war.
“Mykolaiv was subjected to mass shelling today. Probably the strongest so far,” the city’s mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram. “Powerful explosions were heard after one in the morning and around five in the morning.”
Mykolaiv – which has been attacked frequently – is the closest Ukrainian city to the southern front where Kyiv’s forces are looking to launch a major counter-offensive to recapture territory lost after Russia’s February invasion.
Strikes also pounded the northeastern regions of Kharkiv and Sumy, near the front line with the Russian forces.
“Today a whole succession of explosions took place... a few buildings are reportedly damaged,” Igor Terekhov the mayor of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv said.
Reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Press
