Russian navy losing grip on Crimea, Ukraine says

Ukraine has said it is loosening Russia’s hold on Crimea and will ultimately liberate the Black Sea peninsula, as Moscow said its forces had destroyed three marine drones launched by Kyiv’s military in an attempted attack on the region’s main port.

Russia’s defence ministry said “three unmanned motorboats of the Ukrainian navy were detected in the northern part of the Black Sea. A missile and bomb attack was carried out on the… boats.” Officials in Crimea said explosions were heard at about 4am local time on Tuesday near the port of Sevastopol, location of the main base of the Black Sea fleet.

Ukraine has stepped up missile and marine-drone attacks on Crimea this year, striking several Russian warships and a submarine and badly damaging the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet in the centre of Sevastopol. Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.

[ Ukraine war: ‘Sabotage’ attack launched on Sevastopol, says occupation governor ]

[ Ukraine hits Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters in latest Crimea strike ]

“First, the Russian military fleet is no longer able to operate in the western part of the Black Sea and is gradually retreating from Crimea. This is a historic achievement,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, noting that Russia’s navy has announced plans to build a new Black Sea naval base in Abkhazia, a Russian-dominated breakaway region of Georgia, which he said was “as far as possible from Ukrainian missiles and naval drones”.

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“Second, there are no longer any safe bases or entirely reliable logistical routes for Russian terrorists in Crimea and the occupied parts of the Black Sea and Azov coast. As of now, we have not yet achieved full [artillery] fire control over Crimea and its adjacent waters. But we will. It’s just a matter of time,” he added in a video address to a conference on Crimea that was being held in Prague.

Ukraine’s slow-moving counteroffensive in its occupied southeast aims to cut the land link between Crimea and the Russian border, forcing Moscow’s military to abandon much of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and retreat to Crimea. Then Kyiv’s forces could try to destroy the Kerch bridge that links the peninsula with mainland Russia.

“This bridge will be destroyed, but it will be destroyed when the situation requires it,” Ukrainian navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said on Tuesday, adding that a time would come “when it is necessary to cut Crimea’s logistical tails and make it an island”.

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“The goal is to return all of Crimea, because this is our sovereign territory… The Kerch bridge is not some small logistics road. It is used to deliver ammunition and militarise the Crimean peninsula. It is clear to us that this enemy facility… and any goal that brings war rather than peace must be neutralised,” he added.

Ukraine said it shot down all six explosive aerial drones fired from Crimea in the early hours of Tuesday. Russia has launched hundreds of the Iranian-supplied “Shahed” drones at Ukrainian cities over the last 18 months, often hitting housing and power infrastructure.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov met senior Iranian officials in Tehran on Tuesday. His ministry said talks took place in a “trusting atmosphere” about “the further development… of the multifaceted Russian-Iranian partnership”.