A Russian commander was allegedly binge drinking during a drone attack on naval vessels in Novorossiysk port.
The port in the Krasnodar region is one of the largest in the Black Sea basin and is home to much of Vladimir Putin’s southern navy.
Many of the warships relocated there from Crimea, after Ukrainian attacks on the peninsula made it too dangerous to keep vessels there.
Ukraine, however, has now started to target Russian ships in Novorossiysk, using its Magura V5 maritime drones.
On Wednesday, the city’s Mayor Andrey Kravchenko confirmed the port had come under attack from “unmanned boats”.
Following the attack, a furious Kremlin military blogger accused the naval commander in charge of defending the fleet of being drunk and unable to carry out his duties during the attack.
In a post to this Telegram channel, Battle Sailor praised those responsible for foiling the attack, hailing them as the “pride of the Russian fleet”.
But then he turned his fire on “one high-ranking official who periodically goes on a drinking binge throughout the war and then lies under IVs [intravenous drips].”
The Kremlin military blogger added: “Almost everyone knows about him. If you get drunk again, your own officers will disgrace you right in your office, and I will help them spread it,” according to a report by Newsweek.
“I can no longer tolerate this obscene attitude towards naval service.”
Russia‘s Ministry of Defence claimed the drones were destroyed before they could hit their targets.
However, another Telegram blogger with the moniker Crimean Wind published satellite photos that appeared to show fires at the port.
Ukraine has succeeded in inflicting devastating damage on Putin’s Black Sea Fleet, despite having no navy of its own to speak of.
The fleet has come under continual attack and lost around one-third of its original force.
More than 20 vessels are believed to have been sunk or put out of action in the 28 months since Putin unleashed his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia relocated much of its Black Sea fleet from Crimea to Novorossiysk and to its naval port in Feodosia further east on the annexed peninsula in October 2023, satellite images showed.