The Ukrainian military says it has attacked and destroyed a Russian submarine while it was anchored in a port on the occupied Crimea peninsula.
The Rostov-on-Don, a Kilo-class attack submarine launched in 2014, sank after being hit by a missile attack on the port city of Sevastopol on Friday, the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement.
It was reportedly one of four submarines in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet capable of firing Kalibr cruise missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry declined to comment.
Officials in Kiev said the strike also destroyed four S-400 air defense systems protecting the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
UK intelligence agencies noted last September that the Rostov-on-Don suffered “probably catastrophic damage” in a missile attack while undergoing maintenance at a shipyard in Sevastopol.
The Ukrainian military said Russia subsequently repaired the ship and recently tested its capabilities near Sevastopol. The ship was worth $300m (£233m), they added.
“The destruction of Rostov-on-Don once again proves that there is no safe place for the Russian fleet in the Ukrainian territorial waters of the Black Sea,” the General Staff in Kiev said in a statement on Saturday.
It is the latest attack on Russian naval forces in Sevastopol in recent months. In March alone, Ukraine said it had hit two landing ships and a patrol vessel in the port city.
Since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has suffered several major setbacks at sea. Ukraine says it has seriously damaged or sunk at least 15 warships, including the The flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva.
Last week, the Ukrainian military said Moscow had been forced to withdraw all its naval vessels from the Sea of Azov, a body of water connected to the Black Sea, due to repeated attacks on its ships.
And Russia’s internal security service, the FSB, recently said it had foiled a Ukrainian plot to destroy its last remaining aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov. The ship, launched in 1985, has been under repair since 2018.
Meanwhile, officials in Kiev reported that Ukrainian drones attacked a major airport and oil depots in Russia.
The attack targeted Morozovsk airport, which houses guided bombs that have recently caused devastation in Ukrainian cities.
Online footage purported to be from the base showed powerful explosions and massive fires after what appeared to be multiple hits on fuel or ammunition depots. Russia said many of the drones used were shot down, but local authorities have declared a state of emergency around the air base.
Oil storage facilities were also attacked in the Rostov, Kursk and Belgorod regions.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks came after Russia fired more than 600 guided bombs at Ukraine in a week.
He said it was vital that Ukraine stopped Russian planes from firing munitions and said attacking airfields in Russia to do so was “very fair”.
Ukraine’s allies have so far been reluctant to authorize Western-armed strikes inside Russia, although the US recently gave Kiev permission to strike some targets along the border.
Earlier this week, Lithuania’s foreign minister said the first shipments of F-16 fighter jets had arrived in Ukraine. Long promised by Kiev’s NATO allies, President Zelenky sees the planes as central to his country’s air defense plans.
The Times newspaper reported that six fighter jets donated by the Netherlands had arrived in the country. However, Dutch defence officials declined to comment when contacted by the BBC earlier this week.
Officials in Kiev also hope the fighter jets can help stem Russia’s momentum on the front lines, where Moscow’s forces have been making gradual gains in the east of the country for several weeks.
