Attack near the Crimean Bridge
Ukraine reports missile attack on Russian shipyard near Kerch
November 4, 2023, 10:34 p.m
In September, rockets hit the port of Sevastopol and the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. Now the Ukrainian armed forces are reporting an attack on the port facilities in the city of Kerch. According to reports, a Moscow warship was also hit.
Ukraine says it has attacked a shipyard not far from the strategically important Crimean Bridge. The Ukrainian armed forces said that the attack on the Saliv factory in the city of Kerch on the eastern end of Russian-occupied Crimea hit naval and port facilities in the evening.
The Russian occupying governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said on Telegram that Russian air defenses in the Kerch area had been activated and intercepted missiles over the peninsula. Debris from a rocket then fell onto a dry dock. There were no injuries. The information cannot be independently verified. Pro-Ukrainian bloggers claimed that the attack hit the Russian corvette Askold. The Karakurt-class rocket ship was launched in 2021 and is armed with Kalibr cruise missiles.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet stationed in Crimea has recently had to cope with several setbacks. In mid-September, the submarine “Rostov-on-Don” and the landing ship “Minsk” were badly damaged in an attack on the port of Sevastopol. A few days later, rockets hit the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet. At the beginning of August, Ukraine reported damage to the landing ship “Olenegorski Gornjak” by a maritime drone.
Russia occupied Crimea in 2014 and annexed it in violation of international law. Kiev has repeatedly emphasized that it wants to liberate the peninsula. The bridge near Kerch, opened by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in 2018, is an important supply route for Russian associations in southern Ukraine. At the end of October 2022, an explosion brought traffic on the bridge to a standstill for several months. Attacks with maritime drones and missiles followed later.