Ukraine said it launched missiles timed to strike during a high-level meeting at Russia's Black Sea headquarters. "The result is dozens of dead and wounded occupants, including the senior leadership of the fleet," Special Operations Forces posted on Telegram. Russia's defense ministry responded that just one serviceman was killed, NBC News reports, later changing his status to "missing." The missiles left the base's main building damaged and smoldering. A second attack on Sevastopol, a city on the occupied Crimean Peninsula, followed on Saturday morning, a Russian-backed official said, per the AP.
Ukraine has been attacking Russian military infrastructure in Crimea, especially naval installations, in the past few weeks, per CNN. Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, and Ukraine wants it back. The strikes also provide Ukraine with successes even as its counteroffensive against Russian forces lags. The Crimea bridge and other high-profile targets are important strategically and symbolically. Russia has based its Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol since the 19th century. After the strike Friday, a Ukrainian defense official issued a warning that Russia's fleet could be "sliced up like a salami" in future attacks.
Ukrainians also reported new Russia attacks on cities. One reportedly injured more than 30 people, three of them children, in Kremenchuk, with another strike injuring civilians and damaging civilian infrastructure in Yurkivka. The regional governor of Zaporizhzhia reported that Russia had carried out 86 strikes on 27 settlements there in one day. The BBC posted video it said it authenticated of a missile hitting Russia's Black Sea headquarters here. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)
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