By AFP | 2024-03-05

KYIV -- Ukraine said on March 5 its forces had destroyed a Russian military patrol boat in the Black Sea near annexed Crimea, the latest naval attack on Moscow's fleet in the key waterway.

Kyiv also claimed responsibility for a strike on an oil depot in a Russian border region.

Ukraine is flexing its ability to hit Russian targets from the air and at sea, while its troops struggle to hold ground on the front lines.

The Black Sea has been a vital battleground since the war started just over three years ago.

Ukrainian forces claim to have destroyed more than two dozen Russian ships since Moscow invaded in February 2022, including several in recent weeks.

Ukraine's HUR military intelligence unit on March 5 released a black and white video showing what it said was the overnight attack.

The footage showed a naval drone approaching the side of the Sergei Kotov -- a 94-meter-long Russian patrol boat -- before a large explosion can be seen sending fire, smoke and debris into the sky above the vessel.

Ukraine's navy said explosive-packed drones had hit the ship near the Kerch Strait off the Crimean peninsula, causing "damage to the stern, starboard and port sides."

"As for the crew, the details are being clarified. There are dead and wounded. But it is likely that some of the crew managed to evacuate," military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told local media.

'Ostrich mode'

There was no official response from the Russian defense ministry, but Russian military bloggers with close ties to the armed forces confirmed the strike.

Some were scornful of the Russian navy's inability to defend itself.

Pro-war Russian military blogger Yuri Podolyaka March 5 accused Moscow's military leaders of being in "ostrich mode" -- having their heads buried in the sand -- over yet another successful Ukrainian attack in the Black Sea.

The Dva Mayora Telegram channel said the crew had been evacuated and survived, though some were injured.

The ship, which was launched in 2021, had already been severely damaged in a strike last year, Ukraine's Yusov said.

Ukraine's navy said it was "one of the most modern" vessels in the Russian fleet.

Kyiv has claimed a string of successes in the Black Sea, at a time when its army, faced with ammunition and manpower shortages, is struggling on land.

It says it has disabled at least 25 Russian vessels since Moscow invaded -- more than a third of the pre-war Black Sea fleet.

'Symbol of occupation'

The Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, March 5 said the fleet was "a symbol of the occupation" and "cannot be in Ukraine's Crimea."

Moscow has moved many warships from its historic Sevastopol naval base in Crimea to the port of Novorossiysk, farther east, amid the spate of Ukrainian attacks.

Kyiv has also opened an alternative grain corridor that allows ships to export Ukraine's vital agricultural supplies by hugging the Ukrainian coast instead of sailing across the open waters of the Black Sea, which have been packed with mines.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that almost 30 million tonnes of cargo had been exported via the coast route.

A Ukrainian intelligence source also told AFP its forces were behind a drone strike on an oil depot in the Russian border region of Belgorod March 5 that set storage tanks ablaze.

The Russian governor had previously reported a "fire at an infrastructure site," without providing further details.

In the neighbouring Kursk region of Russia, authorities said a strike on the Glushkovo railway station had triggered a fire, cutting off power to a nearby village.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's air force said it had downed 18 of the 22 Iranian-designed attack drones launched by Russia over the Black Sea port of Odesa.