A Ukrainian intelligence source, with whom the Reuters news agency has spoken, states that the missile-carrying vessel “Buyan” was attacked on Friday and that the patrol vessel “Pavel Derzhavin” was hit on Wednesday.
The attacks were described as joint operations by the Ukrainian security services and naval forces, involving seaborne drones carrying experimental weapons.
– After the first detonation, Russian minesweepers and divers could not detect how the drones worked. The missile carrier Buyan was hit on the Sevastopol route by experimental weapons of the naval drones “Sea Babies”, the source says.
Battle for key Ukrainian city
It is unclear how much damage was caused by the drone strikes and Reuters has not been able to confirm exactly what happened. Images on social media show smoke rising from Russian ships outside Sevastopol.
The data from the Black Sea comes at a stage where Russian and Ukrainian forces have been engaged in fierce fighting for four days around the strategically important city of Avdijivka, in eastern Ukraine.
The attack is described as one of the largest military offensives in months by the Russian side. On Wednesday, the Russian military also claimed to have gained a better position at the city.
“The actions of the southern forces, supported by air, artillery fire and heavy flamethrower systems, have improved the situation along the front line in the vicinity of Avdijivka,” read an update from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The troops exhausted
The Institute for the study of war, ISWon the other hand, writes in his latest analysis that Putin’s troops are currently suffering “significant” losses after their advances in the area.
Furthermore, ISW writes that Russian battalion commander Alexander Khodakovsky advocated that Russian forces should freeze the front lines in Ukraine to replace “exhausted mobilized personnel” with new soldiers and then launch a renewed offensive effort.
The think tank assesses that Russia’s offensive action is aimed at tying up Ukrainian forces in the east rather than in the direction of the disputed town of Robotyne further west, which Ukraine recaptured about six weeks ago.
Avdijivka is located just north of the city of Donetsk, which has been occupied since 2014. The city has gained symbolic importance as an important Ukrainian resistance nest, but large parts of it have also been destroyed and the majority of residents have left.