Achi news desk-
Kyiv, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 25th March, 2024) Ukraine on Sunday claimed to have hit two Russian warships stationed on the annexed peninsula of Crimea in overnight strikes, as it suffered another night of “massive” Russian airstrikes.
Ukraine’s ally and neighbor Poland said a Russian cruise missile headed for western Ukraine breached its airspace overnight, after it put its armed forces on high alert amid intense Russian aviation activity.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine managed to hit the amphibious landing ships Yamal and Azov, a communications center, and several infrastructure sites of the Black Sea Fleet,” the strategic communications center of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Sunday.
Officials stationed by Moscow on the peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014, said their forces had repelled a major Ukrainian airstrike late on Saturday night.
“This was the most massive attack in recent times,” the Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said in a Telegram post.
He said a 65-year-old man was killed and four people were injured. He did not mention any damage to Russian warships.
Pictures shared on social media showed a large explosion in the city, sending a fireball and plumes of black smoke into the sky, as well as what appeared to be Russian air defenses intercepting incoming missiles inside.
Ukraine has claimed to have destroyed around a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the start of the war, usually in nighttime attacks using sea-based drones loaded with explosives.
Satellite images show that Russia has moved much of the fleet further east, to the port of Novorossiysk, amid the spate of attacks.
Moscow also recently replaced its navy chief.
– ‘Aim to destroy Kyiv’ –
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the western region of Lviv also came under a “massive” Russian airstrike early Sunday, officials said, although no casualties were reported.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 29 cruise missiles and 28 drones into its territory overnight.
He said he had downed 18 of the missiles and 25 drones.
Russia has significantly increased its airstrikes against Ukraine in recent days, in what it says is retaliation for a wave of Ukrainian strikes on its border regions.
In the early hours of Friday, Moscow launched its biggest air barrage against Ukraine’s energy sector since the start of the war, firing nearly 90 missiles and 60 drones.
Russia has also resumed targeting Kyiv, carrying out its first strikes in the city since early February.
Russia “is not giving up its goal of destroying Kyiv at any cost,” Sergiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration, said on Telegram.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Sunday it had launched a “group strike” against Ukrainian military and energy targets overnight.
“All the goals of the strike have been achieved,” he said, claiming to have hit arms factories.
