A drone was shot down over the Black Sea Fleet command center in Sevastopol, the second attempted attack in less than a month, foreign media reported citing a local official.
On Saturday, while blaming the attempt on Ukrainian forces, City Governor Mikhail Razvojaev wrote on Telegram that the drone had been shot down just above the fleet headquarters in the city of Sevastopol.
He added that there was no serious injury or casualty, and that “it fell on the roof and caught fire”.
On July 31, during Russia’s Navy Day, a drone believed to be from Ukraine struck the Black Sea Fleet, inflicting the first known strike that left five people injured.
No one claimed responsibility for the July 31 drone explosion at the naval headquarters. However, the attack’s makeshift, small-scale nature reinforced the suspicion that Ukrainian separatists were behind it, trying to drive out Russian forces.
Attacks had also been reported on Friday.
According to a local official in Crimea cited by Russia’s RIA and Tass news agencies, it appeared Russian anti-aircraft units were in action on Friday night close to the western Crimean port of Yevpatoriya.
A Russian website published a video showing what seemed to be a ground-to-air missile striking a target.
According to a local official quoted by Tass, six Ukrainian drones sent to assault the settlement of Nova Kakhovka, east of the city of Kherson, were shot down by Russian anti-aircraft forces [on Friday].
A Western official claimed on Friday that more than half of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation combat jets were no longer in service as a result of blasts at the Saky air station in the seized Crimean peninsula earlier in August.
According to Reuters, the official stated that Ukraine was now routinely achieving “kinetic impacts” far behind Russia’s lines, which was materially affecting Russia’s logistical support and “a significant psychological effect on the Russian leadership”.
On August 9, several explosions occurred at the air base close to Novofedorivka on the western extremity of the peninsula, which Russia took from Ukraine in 2014.
