Ellie Cook
Ukraine struck two Russian amphibious ships and a communications center in Crimea, according to Kyiv's military, with open-source intelligence accounts and a Russian military blogger reporting the use of Western-supplied, long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles.
Kyiv launched a "massive overnight missile attack" on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, the Russian-installed governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said in a post to messaging app Telegram on Sunday.
Razvozhaev said on Saturday that air defenses around Sevastopol had shot down at least 10 Ukrainian missiles, and that one person had died after a rocket fragment struck a house.
Ukraine's military then said on Sunday that it had successfully attacked two of Russia's large landing ships, the Yamal and the Azov, and a communications hub in Sevastopol as well as other, unspecified infrastructure facilities.
The Russian flag waves in front of the Ukrainian military ship "Slavutich" in the bay of Sevastopol on March 22, 2014. Kyiv launched a "massive overnight missile attack" on the Crimean port city, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said on Sunday.
Open-source intelligence accounts suggested three British-provided Storm Shadow missiles were used in the strikes. Influential military blogger channel Rybar said Storm Shadows and the French-made versions, SCALP missiles, were used in the strikes.
Footage emerged purporting to show the strikes on Crimea. Newsweek could not independently verify the footage.
Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military and the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is partly based at the Crimean and has enjoyed a run of highly successful strikes on Russia's assets in the peninsula. Kyiv has vowed to retake the peninsula that Moscow has controlled for a decade.
Part of the effort from Ukraine has involved long-range missile strikes and the effective wielding of home-produced naval drones. Kyiv used Western-supplied, long-range, air-launched Storm Shadow missiles to strike a Russian warship and the Rostov-on-Don submarine, based at Sevastopol, in September 2023.
In recent months, Ukraine has damaged or destroyed several Russian Black Sea vessels around Crimea, including a handful of landing ships. The U.K. government said on Thursday that Russia is using decoys to throw off Ukrainian attacks around its Black Sea bases.
Ukraine has succeeded in forcing Russia eastward, shifting some of its resources to Novorossiysk, a Black Sea port city perched in internationally-recognized Russian territory and, crucially, further away from Ukraine's littoral waters.
Moscow is now far warier of keeping its newer, major vessels in Crimea, and has transferred several to Novorossiysk, retired Ukrainian Navy Captain Andrii Ryzhenko told Newsweek in early March.
Reports have also suggested the Kremlin is planning a new military base at the port of Ochamchire in Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia. This would put Russian Black Sea assets even further from Ukraine's coastline.
The British Defense Ministry evaluated last week that Russia had likely restricted most of its operations to the eastern Black Sea.
Earlier this month, Russia ordered new firepower for its Black Sea fleet to fend off the threat of Ukraine's naval drones, and Western intelligence has suggested Moscow has reeled in its Black Sea operations close to mainland Ukraine.
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