- Ukrainian drone attack on civilian ships thwarted, says Russia
- Ukraine denies attacking civilian ships in the Black Sea
- Kremlin admits Ukrainian threat exists and is clear
- Ukrainian drone attack used same methods as 9/11, says Russian foreign ministry.
A Ukrainian drone attack on civilian Black Sea transport ships has been thwarted, Russia’s defence ministry has said. The attack took place overnight, the Interfax news agency reported.
Earlier today, the ministry claimed Ukrainian sea drones had attempted an attack on two Russian navy ships in the Black Sea to control the passage of other vessels. Three sea drones fired at the ships stationed 340km southwest of Sevastopol and were destroyed, it said. The strikes are the latest in a growing list of reported attacks in the key waterway. Last week, Russia said one of its ships had destroyed two unmanned Ukrainian drones in a similar area.
In June, it claimed Kyiv had made an unsuccessful attempt to attack a naval vessel with six high-speed drones.
Ukraine has denied attacking civilian ships in the Black Sea after allegations from the Russian defence ministry earlier today. “Undoubtedly, such statements by Russian officials are fictitious and do not contain even a shred of truth,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s senior adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said. “Ukraine has not attacked, is not attacking, and will not attack civilian vessels, nor any other civilian objects.”
Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on civilian transport vessels overnight. It also said it had prevented a strike on two of its navy ships in the Black Sea – but Mr. Podolyak didn’t comment on this.
The Kremlin has admitted a threat from Ukraine exists after this morning’s drone attack on Moscow. A high-rise building in the Russian capital’s financial district was damaged in the strike for the second time in three days. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was clear there was a threat, but refused to comment further. Earlier, Russia’s defence ministry called the incident an attempted Ukrainian “terrorist attack”.
Kyiv typically does not claim responsibility for specific incidents on Russian territory and has not yet commented on the latest strike.
Ukraine’s overnight drone strike on Moscow has been compared to the 9/11 attacks by a Russian official. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the methods used by Kyiv are similar to those used by al-Qaeda on the World Trade Center. “Let’s take a look at another example: the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. It caused an enormous number of casualties but the methods were the same,” she told the Soloviev Live TV channel.
“The Moscow City district is a civilian site, which only hosts offices and a business center, along with living quarters – a great number of residential apartments – as well as civilian administrative buildings that have nothing to do with the military.”
She added: “We are seeing the same picture now as if it is repeating itself.”
Earlier, Russian authorities said two of three drones had been shot down over the capital, with one eluding air defences and damaging a high-rise building – which was also hit in a similar attack on Sunday. No casualties have been reported. The 9/11 attacks claimed the lives of 2,996 people.
(With inputs from agencies)
