Ukraine Russia war today: Two of Putin’s warships hit in Crimea strikes, Kyiv says

The Ukrainian military said it hit two large Russian landing ships in attacks on the annexed Crimean peninsula early on Sunday, as well as a communications centre and other infrastructure used by the Russian navy in the Black Sea.

The statement did not say how it hit the targets, but a Moscow-installed official in the region reported a major Ukrainian air attack and said air defences had shot down more than 10 missiles over the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

“The defence forces of Ukraine successfully hit the Azov and Yamal large landing ships, a communications centre and also several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in temporarily occupied Crimea,” Ukraine’s military said.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, said on the Telegram messaging app that a 65-year-old man was killed when three homes were hit by shrapnel.

He also said earlier on Sunday that transport infrastructure including passenger boats and buses were partially damaged, with windows broken on five boats. Three passenger buses, 13 school buses and one trolley bus were among vehicles damaged, he added.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said efforts to restore power supplies were under way in various regions, with the greatest difficulties in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

The country’s energy ministry and distributors said Ukraine ramped up imports of electricity and halted exports after the recent series of Russian attacks, in which top energy producer DTEK lost 50% of its capacity.

Volodymyr Kudritskyi, head of Ukrenergo, which operates Ukraine’s transmission lines, said the latest wave of strikes had caused damage of at least 90 million euros ($97 million).

Speaking of Russia’s violation into Polish airspace, Henryk Zdyb, the head of the village of Oserdow, said in an interview with the daily Gazeta Wyborcza that he saw the missile, saying it produced a whistling sound.

“I saw a rapidly moving object in the sky. It was illuminated and flying quite low over the border with Ukraine,” he told the paper.

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, there have been a number of intrusions into Polish airspace, triggering worry in the European Union and NATO member state and reminding people of how close the war is.

“We have to come to terms with the fact that the war is taking place right next to us, and we are part of the confrontation between the West and Russia,” commentator Artur Bartkiewicz wrote in the Rzeczpospolita newspaper Sunday.

An underground gas storage site in Ukraine was attacked on Sunday in the latest wave of Russian missile strikes on power facilities, said Ukraine’s state-run Naftogaz energy firm, which added that gas supplies to consumers had not been affected.

The country’s energy ministry and distributors said Ukraine ramped up imports of electricity and halted exports on Sunday after the recent series of Russian attacks, in which top energy producer DTEK lost 50% of its capacity.

Russia attacked Ukrainian generating and transmission facilities on Friday, causing significant blackouts in many regions, and energy facilities in three Ukrainian regions were also attacked early on Sunday.

Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said equipment was damaged in the strike and repairs were proceeding.

“The situation will not critically impact the UGS operations since the gas is stored deep underground,” Chernyshov wrote on Facebook.

“The damaged surface infrastructure will need repairs, however we have sufficient backup capacities in place to mitigate any immediate impacts.

Russian air defence systems destroyed 22 Vampire missiles launched by Ukraine at Russia’s Belgorod region, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

It comes after Ukrainian military said two large Russian landing ships were hit on the annexed Crimean peninsula early on Sunday, as well as a communications centre and other infrastructure used by the Russian navy in the Black Sea.

Russia struck critical infrastructure in Ukraine‘s western region of Lviv with missiles early on Sunday, Kyiv said, in a major airstrike that saw one Russian cruise missile briefly fly into Polish airspace according to Warsaw.

Moscow launched 57 missiles and drones in the attack that also targeted the capital Kyiv, two days after the largest aerial bombardment of Ukraine‘s energy system in more than two years of full-scale war, Kyiv said.

“There were two preliminary hits on the same critical infrastructure facility that the occupiers targeted at night,” Lviv’s regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The strike used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, which are harder to shoot down, he added, without identifying the facility.

The energy ministry said equipment caught fire when a critical energy facility in the Lviv region was attacked, causing it to lose power. It was unclear if they were talking about the same facility.

Air defences destroyed 18 of 29 inbound missiles and 25 of 28 attack drones, the air force said.

There were almost no details about what had been damaged, but the targeting of critical infrastructure could indicate Russia is trying to keep up pressure on the energy system after its strikes caused widespread blackouts on Friday.

The energy ministry said Ukraine, which has been exporting power in recent weeks, had sharply increased imports of electricity and stopped exports on Sunday after attacks on the energy system.

Several explosions rang out in Kyiv in the early hours as air defences destroyed about a dozen missiles over the capital and its vicinity, said Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration.

There was only minor damage from the attack, he said.

Ukraine sharply increased imports of electricity and halted exports on Sunday after a series of missile and drone attacks on the country’s energy system, the energy ministry said.

“For the current day, electricity imports are forecast at 14,900 megawatt hour (Mwh). No exports are expected,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine imported 3,300 Mwh a day before the attack on March 22, with exports of 2,148 Mwh.

Generating and transmission facilities were attacked by Russia on Friday, causing significant blackouts in many regions. Energy facilities in three Ukrainian regions were also attacked and on this Sunday morning.

The ministry said Russians had attempted to hit a critical energy infrastructure facility in the Lviv region.

“Equipment caught fire and the facility was de-energised. There were no casualties. The consequences are being assessed,” the ministry said.

It said that as a result power lines in the Kyiv region were damaged and 1,400 households in two settlements had lost power.

The airspace incident on Sunday morning comes two days after Poland’s government announced it had prepared new legislation to boost the nation’s capacity for self-defence.

Ministers of defence and of the interior said the bill was prompted by the war that neighboring Ukraine is fighting against Russia’s aggression. Russia has recently captured territory in the east, while Ukraine is running critically low on ammunition.

The legislation will be put before Parliament probably in May, after consultations with the public and with local authorities, ministers said.

“Because of the developments that we can see across our eastern border, we are talking here about extreme situations …, about an armed conflict,” said Marcin Kierwiński, minister of the interior and administration.

The plans include better public warning systems, more emergency shelters and more funding for first aid courses, officials said Friday.

Poland is one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters on the military and the humanitarian levels and has taken in almost 1.5 million refugees.

The Ukrainian military said it hit two large Russian landing ships in attacks on the annexed Crimean peninsula early on Sunday, as well as a communications centre and other infrastructure used by the Russian navy in the Black Sea.

The statement did not say how it hit the targets, but a Moscow-installed official in the region reported a major Ukrainian air attack and said air defences had shot down more than 10 missiles over the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

“The defence forces of Ukraine successfully hit the Azov and Yamal large landing ships, a communications centre and also several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in temporarily occupied Crimea,” Ukraine’s military said.