Moscow vows revenge after Ukrainian “sea drones” struck two Russian ships in the space of 24 hours.
All around Ukraine, the air traffic alert sounded on Saturday.
Moscow strongly condemns what it calls a Ukrainian “terrorist attack” against a civilian ship in the Kerch Strait, between the Crimean Peninsula and Russia on Friday, says Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zacharova.
“Such barbaric acts cannot be justified, they will not go unanswered and their perpetrators and perpetrators will inevitably be punished,” she writes on Telegram.
Kinzhal robots fired
The condemnation had barely been delivered before reports of air raids were reported across Ukraine on Saturday.
The Ukrainian Air Force stated on Telegram that Russia fired its Kinzhal robots at Ukraine. According to the air force, these should have been fired from the Russian region of Tambov – but also from Belarus, reports CNN.
“Right now, robot attacks are taking place in the regions of Kiev, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy. But the alarm goes out all over Ukraine,” wrote one of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s spokespersons on X, formerly known as Twitter, according to Skynews.
Attacks have also been reported in Zaporizhzhya.
Two maritime drone strikes
It was late on Friday evening that a Russian tanker was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Kerch Strait, according to Russian data.
Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the attack, but a security source confirmed the attack to AFP on Saturday.
– During the night, the Ukrainian security service blew up a large oil tanker from the Russian Federation that was transporting fuel to Russian troops, the source said.
Earlier on Friday, Ukraine also said it had knocked out another large ship from the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Kerch Strait. Russia then claimed that it had repelled the attack.
The number of attacks in the Black Sea has increased from both sides since Russia decided last month not to extend the grain agreement with Ukraine.