WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukrainian drone disables Russian warship near Russia's Novorossiysk port
A Russian warship was seriously damaged in an overnight Ukrainian naval drone attack on Russia's Black Sea navy base at Novorossiysk, the first time the Ukrainian navy has projected its power so far from the country's shores.
The port, which handles 2% of the world's oil supply and also exports grain, temporarily halted civilian ship movement before resuming normal operations, according to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium which operates an oil terminal there.
Russia's Defence Ministry said a Ukrainian attack by two sea drones had been repelled in the waters outside the base and that the drones had been destroyed. It made no mention of any damage in its short statement.
A Ukrainian intelligence source said the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Russian Navy landing ship with around 100 Russian servicemen on board, had been hit by a sea drone carrying 450 kilograms of TNT.
"As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions," the source told Reuters, adding that the operation had been carried out by Ukraine's Security Service and the navy. "All the Russian statements about a 'repelled attack' are fake."
Video footage verified by Reuters showed the Olenegorsky Gornyak being towed to shore by a tug, listing heavily to its port side.
Andriy Ryzhenko, a retired Ukrainian Navy captain and naval consultant, estimated the sea drones had travelled 740 km (460 miles) from their likely launch area to Novorossiysk, which would amount to a significant increase in their range.
"It was the first time ... the Ukrainian navy projected power so far away," he said.
A source with knowledge of the port's operations said a large Russian naval vessel had to be towed ashore because it could not move under its own power after being damaged.
The source, who did not name the vessel, said oil and grain loadings were still taking place at the port, which resumed normal operations hours after the attack.
Ukraine referred to the Olenegorsky Gornyak without directly claiming responsibility for the attack.
"We have open information that it is indeed damaged," said Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the southern military command said, adding "it is absolutely legal to destroy the potential of the enemy in time of war."
The Kremlin referred questions to the defence ministry, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Ukrainian source shared a grainy video that looked like it had been shot from the top of a maritime drone that sails right up to the side of a large vessel before the video abruptly cuts out and turns to pixels.
"Another Russian ship is teetering, undermining the aggressor's security reputation in the Black Sea waters," Ukraine's foreign ministry said on X, previously known as Twitter, adding that one of its compartments had flooded.
Andrei Kravchenko, a Novorossiysk city official, said on the Telegram app that the Olenegorsky Gornyak was one of two ships that had "instantly reacted" to fend off the Ukrainian attack.
RISING BLACK SEA TENSIONS
Russian social media users had reported hearing explosions and gunfire near Novorossiysk on Friday morning.
"Tonight, the armed forces of Ukraine attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base with two unmanned sea boats," the Defence Ministry said in its statement.
"In the course of repelling the attack, the unmanned boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of the Russian ships guarding the outer waters of the naval base."
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium which loads oil onto tankers in Novorossiysk said its facilities had not been damaged and that oil loadings continued onto tankers which were already moored.
The port is one of the biggest in the Black Sea, and a major terminal for the export of oil and oil products. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium is the main exporter of Kazakh crude oil.
Exports of Russian and Kazakh oil from Novorossiysk average around 1.8 million barrels per day, or about 2% of global oil supply.
Britain's military intelligence service said last September that Russia's Black Sea Fleet had relocated some submarines from the Crimean port of Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, probably because of the increased threat of Ukrainian long-range strikes.
Retired Ukrainian Navy captain Ryzhenko said the drone video suggested the Russian vessel had been taken by surprise.
"Open windows were visible with the lights on inside. No sailors on the top deck (were) looking for a possible threat. This drone just hit in the middle and caused significant damage to this ship," he said.
"This is quite a serious signal to Russia that other attacks can be conducted and for them it will be unsafe to keep vessels even in Novorossiysk."
Tensions in and near the Black Sea have escalated since Russia last month withdrew from a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports. Russian drones and missiles have since repeatedly struck Ukrainian port facilities and grain silos on or near the Black Sea.
Ukraine sank Russia's flagship, the cruiser Moskva, in April 2022 and said in June last year that it had hit a Russian naval tugboat with Western-supplied anti-ship missiles.
The Ukrainian source did not mention other attacks on warships, but said Friday's hit was the latest in a string of successful operations by the security service, including sabotage operations on Russia's bridge to occupied Crimea last year and last month.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had also repelled an attempted Ukrainian attack on Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, using at least 13 aeroplane-like drones. It said there were no casualties or damage.
** Blasts in Crimea, officials report Ukraine drone attack
Explosions were heard near the bridge linking Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland early on Saturday, Russian-appointed officials reported, saying the blasts were linked to a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian tanker.
Russia's sea rescue service in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk said tugboats were dispatched to help the tanker, which was damaged and unable to operate on its own.
"We can say that the tanker is damaged in the (Kerch) strait, only on the south side," Russia's Tass news agency quoted the rescue centre as saying.
"They will deal with it now on whether to take it under tow or not. It is standing at anchor for the moment. The machine room suffered some damage, not too badly."
Russia-installed officials in the Crimea peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, said the latest explosions had nothing to do with the bridge, which has come under serious attack twice in the 17-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine, which rarely comments on attacks on Russian targets, made no official statement on the incident.
Traffic was halted for a time on the bridge, the third such stop in the past 24 hours, but later resumed.
"Once again, there was no direct attack on the Crimea bridge and there was no explosion in the immediate vicinity," Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Russia-installed governor of Crimea, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
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Ukraine's UNIAN news agency said three explosions had been reported in the area.
Ukrainian news reports and pro-Russian officials in occupied parts of Ukraine said Ukrainian drones had attacked a tanker vessel in the Kerch Strait operating under a Russian flag and identified as the SIG.
One Russian-appointed official in Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, Vladimir Rogov, posted an audio clip in which the vessel had requested a tow from tugboats.
Rogov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, posted pictures of what he described as shattered fixtures and equipment inside the vessels.
The ship, he said, had been supplying oil to Russian troops in Syria.
The bridge, completed by Russia in 2018, four years after Moscow annexed the peninsula from Ukraine, has been subjected to two major attacks in the 17-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the most recent one occurring last month.
Ukraine has claimed responsibility for the attacks only indirectly.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Kiev loses over 43,000 troops in botched counteroffensive — Russia’s top brass
The Ukrainian military has lost over 43,000 troops and about 5,000 items of military hardware, including 26 combat aircraft and 25 Leopard tanks since it launched its counteroffensive, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Friday.
"The Ukrainian army’s losses in combat operations already exceeded 43,000 personnel in June-July since the Kiev regime launched its so-called offensive," the spokesman said.
These figures do not include those wounded and foreign mercenaries evacuated to Ukrainian military hospitals and abroad, and also the personnel eliminated as a result of high-precision strikes by Russian long-range weapons in rear areas, the general said.
In addition, Russian forces have destroyed about 5,000 various Ukrainian armaments since the start of Kiev’s counteroffensive, he said.
"Over 4,900 items of the Ukrainian army’s various armament, including 26 aircraft, nine helicopters, 1,831 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, among them 25 German-made Leopard tanks, seven French AMX wheeled tanks and 21 American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles have been destroyed at the frontline," the spokesman said.
The enemy has also lost 747 field artillery guns and mortars, including 76 US-made M777 artillery systems, and also 84 motorized artillery guns from Poland, the United States, France and Germany, the general reported.
Kiev’s aborted counteroffensive
As the Russian Defense Ministry reported, the Ukrainian army has been making unsuccessful offensive attempts since June 4. Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Ukrainian troops had failed to achieve success in any of the frontline areas. At a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in St. Petersburg on July 23, the Russian leader said that Kiev’s counteroffensive had failed.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov admitted in an interview with CNN that the counteroffensive was falling behind schedule, explaining this by a shortage of ammunition and air defense systems. Ukrainian Air Force Spokesman Yury Ignat pointed to Russia’s electronic warfare supremacy as one of the causes of Kiev’s stalling counteroffensive.
** Russian air defenses intercept 15 US-made HIMARS rockets in Ukraine operation
Russian air defense forces intercepted 15 rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and shot down 28 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Friday.
"During the last 24-hour period, air defense capabilities intercepted 15 rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system," the spokesman said.
In addition, Russian air defense systems shot down 28 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Svatovo and Lisichansk in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Donetsk, Soledar and Volnovakha in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the general reported.
Reuters/Tass
