Ukraine updates: Ukraine says it sank Russian sub in Crimea – DW – 08/03/2024

The Ukrainian military says it sank a submarine from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces also said the attack damaged a Russian S-400 air defense system.

“The submarine sank immediately,” it said.

Moscow made no immediate comment on the claim.

The B-237 “Rostov-on-Don” submarine is quite a modern part of Russia’s fleet, launched and commissioned in 2014. It’s capable of firing cruise missiles at targets on land.

The ship was already hit while at Sevastopol Shipyard in September last year when the Ukrainian military said it was likely damaged beyond repair.

Ukraine has launched repeated attacks on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the ports of occupied Crimea in recent months. The strikes have forced remaining ships to withdraw to other, more distant harbors in the Black Sea.

Officials in Russia’s Rostov region have declared a state of emergency in one district after an overnight wave of Ukrainian drone attacks into Saturday.

“The Morozovsky district was declared in a state of emergency,” the governor of the Rostov region, Vasili Golubev, wrote on his Telegram channel.

Golubev said that a working group was inspecting the area to “assess the damage from the night air attack.”

The governor said that broken glass had been detected in “schools, kindergartens, homes and industrial warehouses.”

Golubev also reported that in another district of the region, the drone attack caused a fire in a fuel depot without causing any victims.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, anti-aircraft defense systems shot down a total of 75 Ukrainian drones over seven regions of the country last night, 36 of them over the Rostov region, bordering Ukraine.

The massive Ukrainian attack with unmanned aircraft occurred three days after Russia launched, as reported by Ukraine, a total of 89 Shahed drones against Kyiv and several Ukrainian regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said all the drones that participated in that attack were shot down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses. 

Russia’ Defense Ministry said it “intercepted and destroyed” at least 75 drones launched by Ukraine overnight.

The governor of Rostov, Vasily Golubev, reported 55 Ukrainian drones in the region.

He declared a state of emergency in the Morozovsky district where a number of public buildings were reportedly damaged. Ukraine said it struck ammunition depot at an airfield in the same district.

Meanwhile, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov  also reported that a Ukrainian drone attack on an oil depot. 

Oryol governor Andrei Klychkov said two drones crashed into a high-rise residential building, causing a fire.

Officials in Krasnodar, Kursk, Voronezh and Ryazan also reported Ukrainian drones.

Kyiv reported a number of Russian airstrikes overnight as well. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down most of the Iranian-designed drones launched by Russia against Ukraine.

Local officials in the central Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia reported that a Russian strike damaged infrastructure.

Russia has used more than 600 guided aerial bombs to attack Ukraine in the past week, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

The Ukrainian president shared photos on social media showing what he said was damage caused by Russian strikes in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, Dnipro and Kharkiv.

Zelenskyy pointed to these attacks as a reason why Ukrainian forces should strike military targets in Russian territory.

“Russian combat aviation must be destroyed wherever it is, by all effective means. It is also quite fair to strike at Russian airfields. And we need this joint solution with our partners — a security solution,” he said.

Ukraine’s military said it attacked the Morozovsk airfield in Russia and a number of oil depots overnight.

The strike on the Morozovsk airfield hit an ammunition depot where guided aerial bombs were being stored, the Ukrainian military said.

“Last night, drones from Ukraine’s Security Service visited the Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region,” a Ukrainian military source was quoted by the French AFP news agency as saying.

“Ukrainian drones did a great job, hitting the aviation ammunition depot,” the source added.  

The governor of Russia’s Rostov region confirmed attacks in the on the districts of Kamensk and Morozovsk. Russian media also reported strike in Millerovo district.

zc/rmt (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)