A small explosive device carried by an improvised drone exploded at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean peninsula on Sunday, injuring six people, authorities said.
The explosion took place in the port city of Sevastopol, seized from Ukraine by Russia in 2014. Russia’s Navy Day holiday celebrations were cancelled.
The press service of the Black Sea Fleet said the drone appeared to be homemade. He described the explosive device as “low power.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the drone explosion. But the apparently improvised nature of the attack raises the possibility that it was the work of Ukrainian insurgents.
Sevastopol is about 170 kilometers south of the Ukrainian mainland. Russian forces control much of that area along the Black Sea.
In the aftermath of the explosion, the Crimean authorities raised the terrorist threat level to yellow, the second highest level.
However, a Russian lawmaker from Crimea, Olga Kovitidi, told the Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti that no conclusions about the attack can be drawn until an investigation is completed.
Ukraine’s navy and an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack highlighted the weakness of Russia’s air defenses. “Did the occupants admit the impotence of their air defense system? Or their impotence against the Crimean guerrillas?” they asked.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, the mayor of the major port city of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, said Russian bombing killed one of the wealthiest Ukrainians, Oleksiy Vadatursky, and his wife Raisa.
A presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Vadatursky was specifically targeted. “It was not an accident, but a premeditated, well thought out and organized murder.”
Vadatursky was one of the largest farmers in the country. “That the exact rocket hit was not just in one house, but in a specific wing, the bedroom, leaves no doubt about the targeting and timing of the attack,” he said.
Vadatursky’s agribusiness Nibulon has a fleet of ships for exporting grain.
Associated Press/OnCuba.
