Ukrainian Defense Forces hit two Russian ships

According to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, two Russian ships were hit during an attack on the port city of Sevastopol in Russian-annexed Crimea. “The Ukrainian Defense Forces successfully hit the Russian large landing ships Yamal and Azov, a communications center, as well as several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in temporarily occupied Sevastopol,” Stratcom said in a Facebook post on Sunday, March 24.

“Yamal” and “Azov” were built back in Soviet times on the territory of Poland by order of the Soviet Navy, notes the Ukrainian publication “Observer”. In particular, the Yamal BDK took direct part in Russia’s armed aggression against Georgia in 2008 by landing troops in the port of Poti with the aim of destroying Georgian Navy ships. Recently, both ships were based in Crimea and took part in Russian military operations against Ukraine.

Sevastopol came under massive missile attack

Annexed Crimea and Sevastopol came under missile attack the night before. The Ukrainian Channel 24, citing local residents, reported that in Simferopol, as well as in Sevastopol and several cities near it, explosions and air defense operations were heard.

The so-called governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, confirmed the attack, but said that it was repelled. At the same time, according to him, a 65-year-old local resident died due to a rocket fragment hitting a residential building in the city. In addition, four people were injured as a result of the strike. One of the downed missiles hit a private home but did not explode, Razvozhaev said, and the missiles also hit houses and one office building.

At the same time, videos of arrivals in one of the city’s districts appeared on social networks. After analyzing this information, the OSINTtechnical project suggested that at least three Ukrainian Storm Shadow cruise missiles crashed into the main communications center of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The publication’s correspondent confirmed that in the area where the shells were supposedly hit, there is a military unit of missile gunners in the former headquarters of the Ukrainian fleet, as well as part of the FSB.

Night strikes in Ukraine

On the night of March 24, Russia carried out air attacks on a number of regions of Ukraine. The authorities of Kyiv and the Lviv region reported on the work of air defense; an air raid alert was announced in all regions of Ukraine. According to the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Russian Federation scrambled 14 Tu-95MS strategic bombers from an air base in the Murmansk region to carry out attacks.

Thus, explosions were heard in Kyiv, but Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko indicated that air defense was operating in the city. According to him, fragments of one of the missiles fell in a forest belt in the Desnyansky district of the capital. No other damage or casualties were reported at the time of publication.

Lvov Mayor Andrei Sadovoy said that “about 20 missiles and seven Shahed drones were flying into the region.” In the city itself, no arrivals were recorded, the official said, and he named critical infrastructure facilities in the region as the target of the attacks.

Poland reported a Russian missile over its territory

A missile launched by Russian long-range aviation hovered over Polish territory for some time on the morning of March 24. This statement was made by the Polish Armed Forces. According to them, the missile entered Polish airspace near the village of Oserdów in the Lublin Voivodeship at 04:23 local time (06:23 Moscow time) and flew over the country for 39 seconds.

The target of the missile was the western part of Ukraine, the Polish General Staff indicated. During the flight, the missile was under the surveillance of the country’s military radars, the department assured. Warsaw used Polish and allied air forces to protect the airspace.

At the end of December, Poland promised to react more harshly to the actions of the Russian Federation related to the war in Ukraine. This happened after one of the Russian missiles launched at Ukraine flew into Polish airspace.