Russia says it repelled drone attack on Crimea

By Angus Watson and Heather Chen, CNN

Russian Black Sea warships have repelled a drone attack in Sevastopol Bay, a Russian official in Crimea said on Saturday.

In a social media post, Russian statesman and mayor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev said “no facilities in the city were hit.”

“The situation is calm and under control. All operational teams are on standby,” he said.

Russian state news agency TASS reported that ferries and boats have been temporarily blocked from accessing the bay.

CNN cannot independently confirm or verify Razvozhayev’s claim. There has also been no acknowledgment of the incident from Ukraine’s side.

Sevastopol, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognized as being part of Ukraine. It is the largest city in the peninsula and has been an important port and a major naval base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to “liberate” all of the country’s territory including Crimea, which has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

The news comes amid the death of a Russian journalist working for a major Kremlin-backed media outlet, who was killed in a shooting accident at a military training ground in Crimea on Friday, Russian officials and state media said.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official claimed on Friday that his country’s troops are on the verge of controlling a key highway between the crucial towns of Svatove and Kreminna in the Luhansk region.

Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration, posted on social media late Friday that the road was “practically under Ukrainian control.”

The towns are major goals for the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempting to push east into Luhansk, which is predominantly under Russian occupation.

CNN cannot independently verify the claim, but holding the road would deny Russia the ability to access Luhansk from the north.

In a separate post Saturday morning, Hayday said Ukraine had conducted airstrikes on Russian positions and air defence systems.

“Missile and artillery units struck enemy positions where batteries of self-propelled artillery systems and other important military targets were located,” Hayday said.

This is a developing story. More to come.

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