KYIV, Nov 10 (Portal) – Ukrainian naval drones sank two small Russian landing craft in Crimea, Ukrainian military intelligence said on Friday, as troops prepared for further Russian attacks in the east, particularly in the destroyed town of Avdiivka.
Portal could not independently verify the report on the attack on Vuzka Bay in western Crimea. A Ukrainian military analyst said this was a significant attack and loss for Russia.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which captured and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and whose Black Sea Fleet is headquartered in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.
An initial report from Ukrainian military intelligence said the two small Russian amphibious ships were hit overnight.
An update on Friday evening said the attack was carried out by naval drones. It identified one landing craft as an Akula-class ship and the other as a Serna-class ship.
“The results of reconnaissance conducted on November 10, 2023 near Vuzka Bay in the temporarily occupied Crimea show that two small Russian landing ships were destroyed after an attack by naval drones,” the report said.
“As a result of the attack, both ships went aground, the Akula immediately and the Serna after rescue attempts.”
The Ukrainian military said the ships were manned and loaded with armored vehicles.
“Boats like this represent a significant loss…,” Andriy Ryzhenko, military analyst and reserve officer, told Radio NV.
“They enabled the relatively inconspicuous transport of a tactical landing force and equipment.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky said attacks on naval targets had weakened Moscow’s military strength in the region. According to Ukraine, some Russian ships have left Sevastopol.
AVDIIVKA UNDER CONSTANT ATTACK
In eastern Ukraine, officials in Avdiivka, which had been under Russian fire since mid-October, expected a new attempt on the city once the ground dried after several days of heavy rain.
“It’s just as hot as always. The enemy is firing around the clock in the city and around our positions,” Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, told public broadcaster Suspilne.
Barabash said a larger number of the 1,500 remaining residents of the once 32,000-strong city were preparing to evacuate. As the weather grew colder, Russian forces began using drones to detect and fire on smoke from makeshift stoves, he said.
Military analyst Serhiy Zgurets wrote on the Espreso TV website that Russian forces were trying to take advantage of Ukraine’s concentration on Avdiivka by trying to recapture areas they lost near Bakhmut in the northeast. Russian troops captured Bakhmut in May, but Ukrainian troops have since retaken surrounding villages.
Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In early June, Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the south and east, but encountered strong resistance.
Russia’s defense minister said early Saturday that its anti-aircraft units had shot down Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region and near Smolensk, near the border with Belarus.
The unofficial Russian telegram channel Baza reported that a drone had been shot down near an engineering factory in Kolomna, 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Moscow, and published an image of what it said was a fire at an explosives factory in Kotovsk, further southeast.
Portal could not determine whether the incidents reported by Baza were related to those reported by the Defense Department and could not independently verify any of the reports.
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Edited by Ron Popeski and Grant McCool
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