(Reuters) – Russian air forces repelled a “massive” air attack by Ukraine on Sevastopol, though debris from a missile fell onto a residential area, the Russia-installed governor of the Crimean port, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Wednesday.
According to preliminary information, no one was injured, Razvozhayev said on his Telegram messaging channel. He added that “several air objects” were destroyed by Russia’s air defence systems over the Black Sea overnight.
The scale of the attack and the extent of the damage were not immediately known. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine 10 years ago in a move broadly condemned by Kyiv’s Western allies.
Reuters could not independently verify Razvozhayev’s reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Both Ukraine and Russia say they do not target civilians in the war which erupted when Russia invaded its smaller neighbour in February of 2022, which Moscow has called a “special military operation”.
The war has killed thousands, displaced millions and turned Ukrainian cities into rubble.
Kyiv says that targeting Russia’s military, transport and energy infrastructure undermines Moscow’s war effort and is an answer to the countless deadly attacks by Russia.
Separately, the governor of the Belgorod region in Russia’s southwest on the border with Ukraine, said that two people were injured there in a fresh Kyiv attack that also damaged a power line, several houses and cars.
Ukraine’s attacks on Belgorod, which lies across from the battered region of Kharkiv where Russian forces are making advances, have increased in recent weeks and according to Russia are more deadly.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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