Destroyed Russian ship ‘joins underwater Black Sea fleet’

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky jokingly said on social media that a Russian naval ship destroyed and sank by the air force had now joined "the Russian underwater Black Sea fleet."

The Kremlin on Tuesday acknowledged a Ukrainian attack had damaged the Novocherkassk landing ship in the occupied Crimean port of Feodosia in what Ukraine and its Western allies called a major setback for the Russian navy.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed "about the damage to our large landing ship" to President Vladimir Putin in "a very detailed report," the president's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Russia's defense ministry said that the ship was damaged by guided aerial missiles.

Ukraine's air force said that its tactical aviation attacked the Novocherkassk with cruise missiles at around 0030 GMT.

Videos posted on social media showed a fire on the horizon in a port area, followed by a loud explosion that sent up a ball of fire and was apparently followed by multiple explosions.

Ukraine's armed forces said that "on board of the ship were Shahed drones that Russia uses for attacks on Ukrainian cities."

The governor of the Russian-annexed peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, wrote on Telegram: "Sadly, one person was killed and two others were wounded in an enemy attack on Feodosia."

Crimea's Krym 24 television reported that two had been hospitalized in a moderately severe condition.

Aksyonov said earlier that the city's port was cordoned off following "an enemy attack" that caused a "detonation" and fire.

Six buildings were damaged, mostly with broken windows, the governor said, and some local residents have been evacuated.

"Ukraine's aviation did an excellent job. Crimea is Ukraine. There is no place for the occupier's fleet here," the ministry wrote.

In his post on social media, Zelensky wrote: "The occupiers will not have a single peaceful place in Ukraine."

Train station attacked

Ukraine nevertheless announced a setback on the eastern front Tuesday.

Commander-in-chief Valeriy Zaluzhny said that troops had pulled back in the town of Maryinka, which is close to the key Russian-held city of Donetsk.

He said troops were still present on the outskirts, after Russia on Monday claimed to fully control the town.

Also, Russia struck a train station filled with fleeing civilians in the Ukrainian city of Kherson killing a police officer and wounding four other people, the interior minister said on Tuesday.

Igor Klymenko said Moscow had launched "a massive bombing" of the southern city, with the head of the military administration warning of continued drone bombardment after the deadly railway strike.

Russian troops occupied Kherson shortly after Moscow invaded Ukraine in late February 2022.

They eventually withdrew under pressure from Ukrainian forces but have continued to bombard the city from across the Dnipro river.

"Kherson in the evening. Around 140 civilians waiting at the station for an evacuation train. That's the moment that the enemy began a massive bombing of the city," Klymenko said on Telegram.

One police officer was killed and four other people — two civilians and two policemen — were wounded by shrapnel, he said.

Zelensky said that "a number of civilians were on the scene" when the strike hit, adding that emergency services had responded to the incident.

The interior ministry named the policeman killed as 29-year-old Igor Misyun, adding that he was "survived by his wife and two children."

The Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsya said on Telegram that a train and the station were damaged but that "the situation is under control and the railway is ready to continue functioning."

Later, the head of the Kherson military administration, Roman Mrochko, said the city was "under a drone attack" and urged citizens to take shelter.

He said the attack included Shahed drones.