A Ukrainian strike on a Crimean port damaged a large Russian landing ship and resulted in the death of one person Tuesday in the latest of a series of embarrassing Russian losses.
A spate of fiery explosions erupted over the port in Feodosia around 2:30 a.m. local time, a video of the incident showed.
The explosions sent orange towers of flames into the still-dark sky over the Black Sea port, which is part of the Ukrainian peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Ukrainian Air Force Cmdr. Mykola Oleshchuk hinted at the attack when he thanked personnel involved in the alleged “destruction of the Novocherkassk large landing ship” in a Telegram post, CNN reported.
“And the fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the Air Force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!” Oleshchuk wrote.
Kyiv may have used Western-supplied Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles in the attack, officials suggested.
“A brilliant special operation was carried out, strikes were carried out, we outsmarted the Russians, and we continue to do so now,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Col. Yuriy Ihnat told Radio Svoboda, according to Newsweek.
“Western weapons plus well-planned tactical operations lead to results,” he said.
The Russian defense ministry later confirmed that Ukraine targeted Feodosia with air-borne missiles and that the landing ship was damaged in the attack.
One person was killed, two were injured and six people were evacuated from their homes as a result of the strike, Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, wrote on Telegram.
The Novocherkassk was built in Poland and entered service in the late 1980s for amphibious landings.
The vessel can carry several types of armored vehicles, including tanks.
The Crimea attack was merely the latest blow to Moscow’s stumbling military effort in Ukraine, which has been raging since Feb. 24, 2022.
In the lead-up to Christmas Day, Kyiv’s forces downed a total of five Russian fighter jets over just three days, the Ukrainian military claimed early Monday.
“Despite significant losses, the enemy does not stop trying to knock our units out of their positions,” the military wrote in a Christmas Day Facebook update.
“Thus, during the past day, the enemy carried out 23 unsuccessful assaults, received a decent repulse and retreated,” the post boasted.
“In total, five ‘Su’ aircraft were shot down in the week before Christmas. This is really impressive,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky added in his evening address Monday, according to Newsweek.
Moscow did not immediately confirm the reports, but Russian Army Capt. Ilya Tumanov previously wrote in a Friday Telegram post that several planes had been downed by United States Patriot missiles, the New York Times noted.
Russia subsequently lost 1,010 soldiers on Monday, Newsweek reported, citing Ukrainian military reports.
The heavy loss brought Moscow’s total personnel losses to 354,960 soldiers, according to Kyiv’s data.
The Russian forces also lost 22 tanks and 37 armored vehicles in Monday’s fighting, Ukrainian officials alleged.
The Ukrainian military’s recent gains “sets the right mood for the whole coming year—the mood of our possibilities,” Zelensky said in a Telegram post Monday.
“The stronger our air defense system is, the fewer Russian devils there will be in our sky and on our land,” he insisted.
Also on Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting that Russian forces had “completely liberated the settlement of Maryinka today,” the Daily Beast noted.
Shoigu’s claim, however, was dismissed by Ukrainian military spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun.
“[Ukrainian forces are] in the administrative borders of Maryinka,” he clarified.
A Russian official also claimed on Tuesday that Moscow’s air defenses had destroyed one of Ukraine’s own Su-24 aircraft – though this claim was also denied by the Ukrainian air force, Ukrinform reported.
As of Tuesday, Russia and Ukraine have been at war for 671 days.
With Post wires
