Ukrainian forces attacked the city of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea with U.S.-made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems), Russian state-run media reported on Friday.
Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Kremlin-installed governor of Sevastopol, said debris from an ATACMS missile struck a nine-story building, breaking through its roof. Missile debris also fell on multiple city streets, Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported, adding that there were no reports of casualties. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment by email.
Attacks on Crimea have ramped up throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, as Kyiv looks to reclaim the Black Sea peninsula. The region was annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Kyiv’s forces are also reported to have frequently used ATACMS to attack the peninsula, with targets often including military airfields, which Ukraine says are legitimate targets in the war.
“Our military repelled a massive attack on Sevastopol,” Razvozhaev wrote on his Telegram channel on Friday, announcing that air defense systems shot down four “air targets.”
“After examining one of the houses on Simonka Street, it turned out that it was not parts of a UAV that fell on the roof of the 9-story building, but a downed high-explosive part of an ATACMS missile,” the governor said.
“It broke through the roof and got stuck on the top floor in the mechanical room, so no one was hurt,” Razvozhaev wrote. “While pyrotechnicians work to clean up the shot-down missile, a decision was made to evacuate people to a temporary location.”
Razvozhaev added: “After the special services finish their work, everyone will be able to return home.” The governor urged residents to stay in their homes, and away from missile debris that had been downed by air defense systems.
The Crimea-based Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported that Ukrainian forces struck multiple military targets, including one of Russia’s prized S-400 Triumph air defense systems and a radar that provides missile guidance for the system.
“We are waiting for satellite images of [showing the] result of the attack,” the channel said.
Newsweek couldn’t independently verify that report.
Russian pro-war military bloggers have recently voiced concerns about the country’s ability to protect its prized assets.
In June, Boris Rozhin, a Crimea-based Russian war blogger, urged Putin to address his country’s air defenses after a reported Ukrainian strike on the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, destroyed parts of a Russian S-300/400 air defense system.
A revision of the “architecture” of Russia’s air defense systems is “urgently needed,” Rozhin wrote on Telegram.
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