Radio Free Europe
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Kremlin-Installed Officials In Crimea Say Sevastopol Targeted By Ukrainian Drones.
Ships of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol Bay on July 26.
The Russian-installed governor in the Crimean city of Sevastopol has said Russian air defenses repelled a drone attack on an electricity and heating plant in the Balaklava district.
Mykhaylo Razvozhayev said two drones were shot down as they approached the plant near Sevastopol in the evening on November 22.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet repelled a separate attack by three drones over the waters off the peninsula on November 22, he said on Telegram, adding that no damage had been caused.
"Now the city is quiet. But all forces and services are on alert," according to Rozvozhaev, who blamed the Ukrainian military for the attacks. The Ukrainian military has not commented on Razvozhayev's accusations.
According to correspondent with the Crimea.Realities project of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, explosions were heard in central Sevastopol on the evening of November 22. Residents of the port city then heard small-arms fire.
Sevastopol is strategically important for Russia, which has several military bases there, including the naval base of the Black Sea Fleet, and used them in its February invasion of Ukraine.
Russia last month blamed Ukraine for a drone attack on the fleet and in response briefly suspended its participation in a deal to facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain through three Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.
Even though there was no major damage in the latest attack, Russia took the precaution of moving some of its ships to the port of Novorossiisk on the mainland.
The strike came days after Moscow said it was strengthening its position on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014 after nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations that led to the ouster of Ukraine's Kremlin-friendly president.
Ukrainian forces have been pushing a counteroffensive in the south of the country and earlier this month reclaimed Kherson, the capital of the region bordering the peninsula.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on November 22 in a speech to French municipal politicians that the Ukrainian military had liberated more than 1,800 settlements from Russian occupation thus far and must still liberate about 2,000 more.
"The consequences of the occupation are very similar everywhere," he said. "Everything that the Russian soldiers managed to mine, they mined. Everything that the occupiers managed to loot, they looted."
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa
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