Last Major Russian Black Sea Fleet Base Struck By Ukraine Drones, Missiles

Novorossiysk was the eastern Black Sea port to which the battered remnants of Russia's Black Sea Fleet retreated after they were chased out of Crimea by Ukrainian attacks. 

But that new base proved no safer as, last night, Ukrainian drones and missiles struck ships, docks, repair facilities oil refineries and tanks, sending the umistakable message that no place in Russia is beyond reach. JL

 
Illia Novikov reports in the AP via the Washington Post:

Ukrainian anti-ship missiles and drones blitzed the major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast. Russia relocated most of its ships to Novorossiysk after Ukrainian strikes on the base at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula earlier in the war. Hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the region overnight. The naval base in Novorossiysk is the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. Ukraine’s air and sea drones have limited the movements of Russia’s once-dominant Black Sea navy, in one of the biggest accomplishments of the war. 

Ukrainian anti-ship missiles and drones blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast in a “unique” nighttime operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday. 

Cutting-edge drones developed by Kyiv since Moscow's full-scale invasion over four years ago have repeatedly targeted Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and oil tankers.

Ukraine’s air and sea drones have succeeded in limiting the movements of Russia’s once-dominant Black Sea navy, Kyiv officials say, in one of the country’s biggest accomplishments of the war. The Ukrainian military “carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post Wednesday. The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure, he added.

Russia relocated most of its ships to Novorossiysk after Ukrainian strikes on the base at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula earlier in the war.

Hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the region overnight, said Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones.

In Novorossiysk, an 8-year-old child was killed in the attack, and a person who was injured in the Temryuk region later died in the hospital, Kondratyev said. He added that 12 other people in the region were wounded. Debris from downed drones fell on the grounds of four industrial plants and 21 residential buildings, Kondratyev said.

Novorossiysk also is home to the Grushovaya oil terminal, one of largest international hubs in southern Russia for petroleum products.

In February, the U.S. State Department expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they affected U.S. oil interests in ⁠Kazakhstan.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwestern Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk. The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major U.S. energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.

On the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones over Sevastopol overnight, said Mikhail Razvozhayev, the city’s Russian-installed head. He added that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged.