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KIEV, UKRAINE (AP) — Russian-appointed authorities in Crimea said the military had fended off a Ukrainian strike on a major naval base on Monday, but an exploding drone was reportedly spotted in a forest near Moscow. Being attacked — Ukraine prepares for a massive counterattack that is believed to come.
Mikhail Razvodjayev, the Moscow-appointed head of the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, said the military destroyed a Ukrainian drone that tried to attack the port early in the morning and another exploded. He said the powerful explosion shattered several apartment windows, but no other damage was done.
The attack was the latest in a series of attempted attacks on Sevastopol, a major naval base in Crimea illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on Monday’s strike. After previous attacks on Sevastopol and elsewhere, Ukrainian officials stopped publicly claiming responsibility, but emphasized the country’s right to attack any target in response to Russia’s aggression.
Russian news reports claimed on Monday that a Ukrainian exploding drone was spotted in a forest about 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) east of the Russian capital.
Although there was no explosion, the incident re-emphasised Ukraine’s ability to reach deep into Russia as Ukrainian forces are believed to be gearing up for a spring counteroffensive. regain occupied territory.
Observers believe the most likely targets for a counterattack are the Russian-held parts of the southern Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. A successful push would allow Ukraine to open up a land corridor between Russia and Crimea.
In preparation for such a move, Ukrainian forces recently established a foothold near the town of Oreshky on the east bank of the Dnieper, according to the War Research Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
Ukraine recently received sophisticated weapons from its Western allies and a new army freshly trained in the West, raising hopes for an offensive.
US-made Patriot missile arrives in Ukraine Last week, military spokesman Yuri Inat said on Ukrainian television on Sunday that some had already been commissioned.
Russian forces, meanwhile, have been in an almost nine-month effort to capture Bakhmut’s Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed the importance of protecting Bakhmut in an interview with the Associated Press last month. With that collapse, Russia said it could garner international support for a deal that could call for compromises that Kiev could not tolerate.
For both Ukraine and Russia, the Battle of Bakhmut, the longest battle of the war, is key to exhausting enemy forces and preventing attacks elsewhere along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. explains.
On Monday, Evgeny Prigozhin, billionaire owner of the Wagner Group military contractor that spearheaded the Russian offensive in Bakhmut, said Ukrainian forces had moved into two square kilometers (less than one square mile) west of the city of Bakhmut. claimed to have been pushed. His claims could not be independently verified.
“Our task is to crush the Ukrainian army and prevent it from launching a counterattack,” said Prigozhin.
He predicted that Ukraine would likely launch a counterattack in the coming weeks when the ground dried up enough to allow tanks and other heavy vehicles to move freely from the roads.
In an interview with RBC-Ukraine, Ukraine’s head of military intelligence, Major General Kirilo Budanov, described the planned counterattack as “a landmark battle in Ukraine’s modern history” in which the country would “reclaim vital areas”. said it would happen. “Everyone understands we are getting close to it,” he said.
Russian military bloggers have speculated that the Ukrainian counterattack could be accompanied by a number of wide-area drone strikes.
Russian media have identified the drone that fell near Moscow as a Ukrainian-made UJ-22 Airborne. They said it was discovered by local residents on Sunday. Reports say the drone crashed after running out of fuel or hitting a tree. They said it carried 17 kilograms (37 pounds) of explosives.
The UJ-22 is a small reconnaissance drone that can carry about 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of explosives and has an autonomous flight range of up to 800 kilometers (about 500 miles).
Last month, another drone, which authorities suspected was also from Ukraine, was found in Shecherkovo, about 15 kilometers northeast of Moscow, but it did not carry explosives.
Also in March, a Ukrainian Tu-141 Strizh jet-propelled drone exploded over the city of Kireyevsk in the Tula region, about 200 kilometers east of Moscow, injuring three people and leaving a large crater and several Buildings damaged. The Russian Defense Ministry said the drone was shot down by air defense.
Russian officials said Ukraine used Soviet-made Tu-141 drones with a range of about 1,000 kilometers to attack Russian installations. In December, such drones attacked two of her airbases in Russia, attacking bombers capable of long-range nuclear strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry said the drone had been shot down, but confirmed that some of the aircraft had been damaged by the debris and that several military personnel had died.
Authorities reported in February that a Ukrainian-made drone had been found in a forest near Guvastvo in the Kolomna region, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Moscow. The drone landed near the apparent target, a major natural gas pumping facility.
In February, another drone exploded in a forest near Kaluga, about 150 kilometers southeast of Moscow, but no one was injured.
The Ukrainian president’s office said Monday that at least four civilians have been killed and 13 injured in the past 24 hours in recent Russian attacks. Two people died in Bakhmut and two in the southern city of Kherson.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine-war
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