(RockedBuzz via Reuters) – The Russian-installed governor of the Crimean city of Sevastopol said on Saturday that air defenses shot down a drone in what he suggested was the latest attempted Ukrainian attack on a port where the Russian Sea Fleet is based. Black.
Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russian-backed governor of the city, leveled the accusation on the Telegram messaging service, claiming the incident had occurred in the early hours of January 7, which is Orthodox Christmas.
“Even the sacred Christmas holiday was not a reason for these inhuman people to stop their attempts to attack our Hero City,” wrote Razvozhaev.
There were no immediate comments on the allegations from Ukraine, which has not confirmed similar alleged incidents in the past but has made clear it reserves the right to do whatever is necessary to return its territory.
Russia annexed Crimea to Ukraine in 2014 and Kiev says it is determined to return the Black Sea peninsula along with a swath of eastern Ukraine and other territory Russian forces have seized since they invaded on Feb. last year.
Crimea, which Russia says is now its sovereign territory, was one of the launch pads for what Moscow has called its “special military operation” and has been attacked several times – most spectacularly in August, when a series of explosions destroyed a group of warplanes at a Russian naval base.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had proposed a truce to coincide with the Orthodox Christmas. Kiev rejected his offer as a cynical ploy to buy time for Russian forces to rest and bring in new equipment.
(RockedBuzz via Reuters Editing report by Andrew Osborn)
