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A Ukrainian drone hit the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea this weekend, the latest assault on a region Moscow once considered an impregnable fortress.
Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the Sevastopol military base on Saturday morning, and city residents were urged to stay at home immediately after the strike, the latest in a string of high-profile attacks on sensitive targets there and inside Russia.
The governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said there were no casualties, and initially claimed the drone flew into the airbase’s roof after troops stationed there were not able to shoot it down. He later said soldiers had been able to target the drone, and that it had fallen onto the airbase roof after being hit. “Clarification: the drone was hit…right above the fleet headquarters. It fell on the roof and caught fire. The attack failed. Well done boys,” he wrote.
Previous attacks in Crimea, including one earlier this month on the Saky airbase that sent fireballs into the sky and destroyed nine or more warplanes, prompted many residents to flee the peninsula.
Worried locals responded to Razvozhaev by asking how a drone had slipped through air defences that at the start of the war were considered among the most sophisticated in the world. “Was our air defence system on a lunch break?” asked one. “When will you finally close the city?” asked another, suggesting the attacks were the work of pro-Ukraine partisans in the peninsula.
