Smoke Rises After Strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Headquarters

US Made

 

The headquarters was damaged in the attack, the latest on the illegally occupied peninsula as Kyiv seeks to disrupt Moscow’s military operations.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• One soldier is missing after the attack on Sevastopol, Russia says.

• Zelensky meets with Trudeau before addressing Canada’s Parliament.

• Zelensky predicts during U.S. visit that Ukraine will win back Bakhmut.

• Ukrainian armored vehicles breach some Russian defenses, reflecting slight progress in a halting counteroffensive.

• Here are some of the highlights of President Zelensky’s trip to the U.S.

• The U.S. is expanding F-16 patrols over Romania amid concerns about drone debris.

• A cargo ship departs a Ukrainian port with grain, again testing the Black Sea route.

One soldier is missing after the attack on Sevastopol, Russia says. 

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  Ukraine launched a missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea.

CreditCredit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Ukraine launched a missile attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea on Friday, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said, the latest strike on the illegally occupied peninsula as Kyiv seeks to disrupt Moscow’s military operations.

Russia’s defense ministry said that air defenses had shot down five missiles but that the Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in the city of Sevastopol had sustained damage. One service member was missing after the attack, it added in a statement.

Video footage posted on social networks showed thick black smoke billowing from what appeared to be the headquarters. It was not immediately known whether the building was hit in a direct strike that had evaded air defenses or by fragments of an intercepted missile. The Russian state news agency Tass reported that debris was “scattered hundreds of meters away after the missile strike” and that ambulances were heading to the scene.

Ukraine’s military said in a brief statement that its forces had struck the Black Sea Fleet headquarters.

The Ukrainian military has long maintained that the war cannot be won without taking aim at Russian assets and operations in Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014. In recent weeks, Ukraine has sharply accelerated the pace of strikes on the peninsula, which Russia’s military uses as a hub, stockpiling fuel, ammunition and other supplies to be funneled to the battlefields in southern Ukraine.

“There’s a lot of military assets there which are taking part in the war,” Samuel Bendett, a Russian weapons analyst at the Center for Naval Analysis, said in an interview. He noted that, in addition to the Black Sea Fleet, the peninsula also houses attack planes and helicopters, as well as infantry bases.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Sevastopol, on Crimea’s southern coast, said in a statement that firefighters were battling the blaze at the headquarters. He added that no one had been injured outside the building and that nearby civilian infrastructure had not been damaged.

Mr. Razvozhayev initially warned that another attack was possible. He later said that there was no longer any threat but urged residents to avoid Sevastopol’s city center, where the headquarters building is.

Oleg Kryuchkov, an official with the Russian-installed authorities in Crimea, said that debris from a downed missile had also sparked a grass fire in Bakhchysarai, a town about 20 miles northeast of Sevastopol. 

Last week, another attack targeting the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet damaged two ships and triggered a large blaze at a sprawling naval shipyard that plays a critical role in the Russian war effort.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said its missiles took out a command post for the Black Sea Fleet in the village of Verkhnesadovoye, a few miles north of Sevastopol’s city center. Satellite images analyzed by The New York Times showed damage to the command post. 

Arijeta Lajka contributed reporting.

— Constant Méheut

Zelensky meets with Trudeau before addressing Canada’s Parliament.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, left, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada in Ottawa on Friday.Credit...Blair Gable/Reuters

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was holding meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Friday morning before addressing the country’s Parliament on his first trip to the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Mr. Trudeau has been a particularly strong supporter of Ukraine, reflecting a consensus among Canadians. His country has the largest population of expatriate Ukrainians and Mr. Trudeau’s government has provided about $3.7 billion in financial assistance to Ukraine and an additional $1.3 billion in military aid.

The Canadian prime minister greeted Mr. Zelensky at a 19th-century building in Canada’s Parliamentary complex that has become the temporary home of the House of Commons, which is being renovated. Early Friday afternoon, Mr. Zelensky is scheduled to address the House and Canada’s unelected Senate in a joint session in the chamber.