In response to reports of drone assaults from the southern Crimea to close to the Estonian border, Russia said on Wednesday that its forces had destroyed four Ukrainian military boats in the Black Sea that were carrying up to 50 soldiers.
Russia destroyed Ukrainian boats: Following the collapse of a United Nations-mediated pact aimed at ensuring the safe navigation of grain ships last month, both Ukraine and Russia escalated their operations in the Black Sea region.
Around midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT), an aircraft “destroyed four high-speed military boats,” the Russian defence ministry posted on Telegram.
The boats had been transporting “landing groups of Ukrainian special operations forces with a total number of up to 50 people,” the ministry stated.
The actual location of the incident in the Black Sea was not specified.
On Wednesday, the local governor of Crimea, who was appointed by Moscow, informed TASS that Russian defenses had thwarted a “seaborne drone attack near” Sevastopol Bay.b
The Black Sea fleet of Russia is based in Sevastopol.
Without going into further detail, Razvozhayev merely stated that “anti-submarine forces have finished their work.”
Kiev has recently assaulted Russian ships in its waters as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Ukraine said last week that its troops had flown the national flag in Russian-occupied Crimea as part of a “special operation” to commemorate the country’s second wartime Independence Day.
Moscow’s defense ministry reported that one of its jets allegedly destroyed a Ukrainian “reconnaissance boat” last week near Russian gas production facilities in the Black Sea.
Without going into more detail, it later claimed to have sunk a US-built speedboat carrying Ukrainian troops east of Snake Island.
Drone wave
Russia was the target of more drone assaults from Ukraine, according to reports from Russian authorities on Wednesday.
According to the local governor, air defences “repelled” a drone attack on an airport in Pskov, which is about 800 kilometres (almost 500 miles) from Ukraine’s border and close to the frontiers of Latvia and Estonia, two EU members.
The regional governor for the area, Mikhail Vedernikov, released a video on Telegram showing a significant fire with explosions and sirens in the background. He claimed to have been at the scene of the attack.
There were no casualties, he said; authorities were analysing the damage.
The military ministry did not promptly reply to a comment request. However, Russian news agency TASS quoted emergency services, stating that four Ilyushin Il-76 heavy transport aircraft had sustained damage.
According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, two Il-76 aircraft have caught fire.
Vedernikov reported the postponement of all Wednesday flights at the airport “until clarifying the nature of the possible damage to the runway.”
TASS has reported the “temporary closure” of the airports at Domodedovo and Vnukovo in Moscow to traffic.
Drones previously attacked the Pskov region in May.
Authorities in the districts southwest of Moscow (Kaluga and Ryazan), close to the Ukraine border (Bryansk), and southern Oryol reported the downing or destruction of drones.
According to initial indications, air defences also took out a drone that was “heading for Moscow,” the mayor of the city stated on Telegram, adding that there were no injuries or property damage.
Since Kyiv promised last summer to “return” the conflict to Russia, drone attacks on Moscow and other Russian regions have been nearly daily.