A Ukrainian drone strike has left a Russian ship severely damaged following a shock overnight attack.
Video on social media appeared to show the drone colliding into what is thought to be the Russian Olenegorsky Gornyak vessel on Friday.
The ship had been based at Russia’s Black Sea navy base at Novorossiysk which is a key export hub.
Ukrainian sources told Reuters the ship was seriously damaged following the attack, while a separate video on social media appeared to show the vessel being towed as it listed on its side.
And the result that never happened according to Russia pic.twitter.com/m6bxsHMqNK
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) August 4, 2023
Russia’s defence ministry, however, claimed it had repelled the Ukrainian attack on its naval base.
“Tonight, the armed forces of Ukraine attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats,” it said in a statement.
“In the course of repelling the attack, the unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ships guarding the outer waters of the naval base.”
Russian officials did not say the Olenegorsky Gornyak or the port itself were damaged, although the Caspian Pipeline Consortium which operates an oil terminal there, said exports had been temporarily halted before being resumed.
The civilian port handles two per cent of the world’s oil supply and also exports grain. It is also an important naval base for the Russian navy.
The attack comes after Russian missile strikes have targeted Ukrainian ports, most recently Odesa and Chornomorsk where authorities said 60,000 tonnes of grain were destroyed.
The Russian defence ministry also said on Friday that its forces had repelled an attempted Ukrainian attack on Crimea.
