The Ukrainian military claims to have sunk a submarine near the port of Sevastopol in Crimea, before launching a wave of drone attacks inside enemy territory overnight on Saturday.
The £234m Rostov-on-Don 242-foot long attack submarine had been stationed in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and home Russia’s key Black Sea port when it was sunk following a missile strike.
Ukraine’s armed forces said in an official statement on Telegram that the attack “proves once again that there is no safe place for the Russian fleet in Ukrainian territorial waters of the Black Sea”.
According to reports, four Russian S-400 anti-aircraft guns were also damaged in the attack.
Ukrainian drones also struck a major airfield and oil depots inside Russian soil overnight on Saturday with Russia’s defence ministry claiming 75 Ukrainian drones were “intercepted and destroyed” near the border.
Drones reportedly hit the Morozovsk airfield on Saturday, which is home to Su-34 glide bombers that have played a key role in Russian air operations during the war.
The drones also hit oil storage depots in the Rostov, Kursk and Belgorod regions, with at least two oil tanks reported to have caught fire as a result of the attacks according to Ukraine’s general staff. This included 36 drones over the Rostov area.
The ministry admitted that “warehouse facilities” in the Morozovsk and Kamensky districts were damaged during the wave of strikes.
Russia has endured significant naval losses since the outbreak of the war. Ukraine claims at least 15 Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea have been sunk, while another 12 other vessels have been damaged.
The recent attack, though significant, is nowhere near the largest Russian naval loss during the war so far.
A 600-foot-long Russian missile cruiser known as the Moskva sank into the Black Sea in April 2022, after it was hit by Ukrainian missiles.
The Rostov-on-Don had previously been damaged by a Ukrainian attack in September 2023 and at the time, the Ukrainian defence ministry mocked Russia for having “lost a submarine in a land war”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated his country’s military for the recent strikes on enemy soil.
“These actions are most effective when the consequences of Russia’s war are brought back home to Russia and when there is no safe place for the enemy on the occupied territory of our state,” he said in an official statement.
“I thank each and every warrior involved.”
Separately, Russian forces captured the village of Novoselivka Persha in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Sunday, the country’s defence ministry said, the latest territorial gain in a region Moscow claims as its own.