Ukraine’s tactics when launching an unprecedented large raid on Russian military ports

(Dan Tri) – Ukraine’s missile attack on the port city of Sevastopol marked the latest escalation in Kiev’s counterattack campaign to regain territories controlled by Moscow.

The photo is said to be of a damaged Russian ship after Ukraine’s missile attack on Sevastopol, Crimea on September 13 (Photo: Reuters).

On September 13, Ukrainian forces conducted a large-scale long-range cruise missile attack on a strategic Russian naval shipyard in the Crimean peninsula.

The raid on the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol marked Ukraine’s latest attack on Russian positions and assets in and around Crimea, which Kiev has said it will regain control of from nearly a decade.

Pravda cited information from representatives of the Atesh resistance movement as saying that members of this group helped identify important Russian military targets during the Sevastopol raid.

A retired US military general said these operations were part of a long-term pressure campaign to isolate Crimea and make Russian forces remaining there `untenable`.

`It was all staged as part of a complex counteroffensive (by Ukraine),` Ben Hodges, a retired lieutenant general and former commander of US troops in Europe, told Business Insider.

According to a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ukrainian aircraft launched 10 cruise missiles at the Russian shipyard in Sevastopol, located on the southwestern edge of Crimea, in a dawn attack.

The photo is said to be of a landing craft and a Russian submarine on fire at the Sevastopol shipyard during the raid on September 13 (Photo: Telegram).

Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence official, said that the Russian ships suffered significant damage that was likely beyond repair.

`This is truly the biggest attack on Sevastopol since the conflict broke out,` said Andriy Ryzhenko, a retired Ukrainian navy colonel.

Sevastopol is the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and its shipyard plays an important role in helping Moscow build and maintain its ships.

`The demilitarization of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is a long-term guarantee of the security of regional trade routes and grain corridors,` Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote online

Podolyak’s statement appeared to refer to rising tensions around the Black Sea and threats against civilian ships after Russia pulled out of a key Black Sea grain deal.

Smoke rose at the shipyard in Sevastopol after the raid on the morning of September 13 (Photo: Reuters).

The missile strike on Sevastopol was the latest in a series of attacks by Ukraine aimed at pressuring Russia in and around the Crimean peninsula.

Last month, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said it had destroyed one of Russia’s highly prized S-400 air defense systems at the westernmost point of the peninsula, and the next day it said

Earlier this week, Ukraine announced that its special forces had recently regained control of Boika Towers, an oil rig off the coast of Crimea.

The city of Sevastopol is located on the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine (Photo: US Department of Defense).

General Hodge said that recent activities around Crimea, including the latest attacks in Sevastopol, were not random moves but part of Ukraine’s larger counterattack effort.

`The counteroffensive did not only consist of Ukrainian ground forces trying to penetrate Russian trenches and minefields. That was only part of the counteroffensive. The counteroffensive was aimed initially at isolating Crimea

While the long-term impact of the attacks on Sevastopol remains unclear, Gen. Hodges said it was important for Ukraine to maintain pressure on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

By pressuring the Black Sea Fleet and attacking Russian maintenance or refueling facilities, Ukraine would force Russian commanders to rethink keeping their ships in Crimea.

`This shows how vulnerable Russian forces are in Crimea. It can be believed that Ukraine will continue to keep an eye on Crimea because this is the decisive area of ​​the war and it is not something that can be exchanged