Ukrainian naval drones are proving to be just as active as aerial ones attacking Moscow. The Russian ship Olenegorsky Gonyak, a landing craft, was hit in this way on Thursday night in the Crimean port of Novorosisk. According to sources from the Ukrainian intelligence services (SBU) that carried out the attack together with the Ukrainian Navy – or what is left of it – a naval drone hit the ship with 450 kilos of TNT.
However, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not mention the event and limited itself to reporting that two Ukrainian naval drones had been destroyed. The SBU described this information as “false”. According to Moscow, the naval drones “were visually detected and destroyed” by the Russian vessels. Defense also claimed, but in another statement, to have shot down up to 13 aerial drones over Crimea.
The extraordinary thing about this action, according to sources quoted by the Reuters agency, is that the remote-controlled ships would have traveled no less than 750 kilometers to the Crimean port of Novorosisk. On video footage, the landing ship could be seen listing to one side. The Olenegorsky Gonyak does not belong to the Black Sea Fleet, but was normally stationed in the Barents Sea.
Novorosisk is a large oil port at the end of a 1,500-kilometre pipeline that begins in western Kazakhstan. Most of the Kazakh oil destined for export transits through this tube.
The Caspian Pipeline Concern, which loads crude onto tankers in Novorosisk, said its facilities were not damaged and oil shipments continued on ships that were already moored. The port is one of the largest in the Black Sea and an important terminal for the export of oil and derived products; The consortium is Kazakhstan’s leading oil exporter, with Russian and Kazakh oil exports of about 1.8 million barrels per day, or about 2% of world oil supply.
On the other hand, Russia returned to bombard this Friday with artillery a hospital that it already attacked on Tuesday in the city of Kherson causing one death and five wounded. This hospital is assisted by Doctors Without Borders, one of whose members, Andrí Dobravski, who was rehabilitating the hospital bunker this Friday, reported that the bombardment had affected “the mortuary, causing damage to the concrete structures and the the gas pipes. According to Dobravski, at the time of the bombing there were about 150 people in the medical center, including staff and patients. Fortunately, both staff and patients were unharmed. “I want to underline that the hospital is located in a residential area, with a school and apartment buildings nearby,” said Dobravski, MSF operational adviser.
