Moscow
\nThe Russian Navy foiled a drone attack in Crimea\u2019s Sevastopol on Thursday morning, the city\u2019s governor Mikhail Razvozhaev has revealed. The strategic port-city has seen a number of similar attacks in recent months, with Russian authorities pointing the finger at Ukraine.
\nLocated on the southwest coast of Crimea, which joined Russia following a referendum in 2014, Sevastopol is considered to hold strategic significance, as has had a special status of federal city granted to it by Russian authorities.
\nThis means that, despite being a city rather than a region, it is headed by a governor. The only two other cities with this status in Russia are Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
\nOn Thursday, Razvozhaev posted a short message on his Telegram channel: \u201cIn the morning, a Russian Black Sea Fleet ship on duty shot down a UAV over the sea.\u201d
\n READ MORE: Three killed in Ukrainian attacks on airfields in Russia \u2013 MOD
\nHe praised the military personnel, reporting that they\u2019d handled the threat professionally, \u201cas ever.\u201d
\nThe governor\u2019s comments came after local residents started describing on social media a loud bang they\u2019d heard over the city.
\nAccording to local media, a similar incident had occurred in Sevastopol in the early hours of Tuesday.
\nIn October, some nine aerial and seven naval drones attempted to strike vessels of the Russian Black Sea Fleet docked at Sevastopol Naval Base. The Russian Defense Ministry said at the time that the attack had been repelled, with one vessel suffering minor damage as a result.
\nRussian officials say that the data retrieved from the October drone attack indicated that the UAVs and naval drones had been launched from the Ukrainian Black Sea coast, not far from the port city of Odessa, and had been moving along the UN-brokered Black Sea grain corridor.
\nIn July, a UAV, supposedly of Ukrainian origin, attacked the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol.
\nUkraine considers Crimea an inalienable part of its territory, temporarily occupied by Russia. President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly vowed to retake the peninsula.
\nIn late April, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained that the military offensive against Ukraine launched by Russia a few months earlier had sought, among other goals, to \u201cguarantee the peace and security\u201d of Crimea.
\nIn May, the Russian head of state reiterated that Ukraine had \u201copenly been preparing for\u2026 an invasion of our historic lands, including Crimea.\u201d
\nHe claimed that Russia\u2019s military campaign was pre-emptive in its nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow The Russian Navy foiled a drone attack in Crimea\u2019s Sevastopol on Thursday morning, the city\u2019s governor Mikhail Razvozhaev has revealed. The strategic port-city has seen a number of similar attacks in recent months, with Russian authorities pointing the finger at Ukraine. Located on the southwest coast of Crimea, which joined Russia following a referendum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-300079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n