Ukrainian drones targeted a Russian naval base near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on Friday, according to Moscow’s defense ministry.
In a statement, the ministry said two uncrewed drones had attacked the base, but were “detected and destroyed” by Russian ships guarding the harbor before they could damage any infrastructure. There were no casualties, according to local authorities.
But footage shared widely on Telegram appeared to show a Russian warship damaged and listing in the water after the attack, seeming to undermine Moscow’s insistence that it had repelled the attack.
Novorossiysk is one of Russia’s main Black Sea ports. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which operates an oil terminal near the port, said in a statement that “a temporary ban on the movement of ships in the CPC water area and the port of Novorossiysk” was in place Friday morning. “There is no damage to the Consortium’s infrastructure,” the statement added.
Friday’s drone attacks occurred after Russia last month pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allowed Kyiv to continue exporting its agricultural products to the world, and began hammering Ukraine’s Black Sea ports with missiles.
On Wednesday morning, Bucharest accused Russia of war crimes after it attacked Ukrainian grain ports at Izmail on the River Danube, a short distance from Romania.
