(Bloomberg) — Ukrainian forces said they struck a military airfield as part of a massed drone attack on several Russian regions, while claiming a hit on Friday had sunk a Black Sea Fleet submarine in Crimea.
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The overnight UAV barrage hit the Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region, where Russian glide bombs and other items are stored, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Facebook. The base, in a region which borders parts of eastern Ukraine occupied by Moscow’s forces, houses one of Russia’s fighter jet squadrons.
“Russian military aviation must be destroyed by the use of all means which prove effective,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on social media. “It is also totally fair to strike Russian airfields. This is the only way to provide real protection for our people.”
Fuel depots were also hit and caught fire in the Belgorod and Rostov regions, while a drone struck a residential building in the Oryol region without causing fatalities, according to Russian news agencies.
It’s unclear if the strikes at Morozovsk hit air defense objects and aviation equipment. In total, 75 drones were shot down in the attack, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Sank on Spot
Separately, the General Staff said in a Facebook post that the Russian B-237 submarine “Rostov-on-Don” was struck in the port of Sevastopol on the annexed Crimea peninsula on Friday.
“As a result of the hit, the boat sank on the spot,” the General Staff said.
The Kilo-class submarine, capable of firing cruise missiles, was damaged in an shipyard attack in September 2023 and was being tested after undergoing repairs, according to Ukraine’s statement, which also claimed a hit on an anti-aircraft missile complex in Crimea.
Russia hasn’t commented.
Ukraine continues to target military objects and other facilities used by Kremlin forces in their invasion in Ukraine, now well into the third year, including fuel depots, oil and gas refineries and anti-missile defense radars.
Glide bombs are equipped with flight control surfaces that can expand their range. This week alone, Russia fired over 600 such projectiles at Ukraine, Zelenskiy said. Zelenskiy continues to seek backing from Ukraine’s allies to hit targets deep inside Russia with Western weapons.
(Updates with submarine strike from first paragraph.)
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