UKR’s Crimea Offensive: the Kremlin’s Naval Fleet No Longer Safe in the Black Sea; UKR Attack Damages RU Warship; UKR Secured a Critical Dnipro River Crossing in S. Ukraine; UKR Eliminates 1010 Invaders, Destroys 22 Tanks Overnight; Almost 100 Combat Engagements Past Day, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

WSJ: Ukraine’s Crimea Offensive:

The strike against the Novocherkassk shows the Kremlin’s naval fleet is no longer safe in the Black Sea.

The current narrative about the war in Ukraine is that Russia has regained the offensive and is making gains in the east. But that’s not how it looked Tuesday on the bridge of the Novocherkassk, a Russian warship struck by Ukrainian cruise missiles.

Online videos posted by Ukrainian authorities showed a large explosion on the amphibious landing ship. Russia’s defense ministry acknowledged a Ukrainian missile had “damaged” the Novocherkassk, in addition to killing one and wounding two, the state news agency Tass reported.

Tuesday’s strike is especially notable because the ship was hit in the Crimean port of Feodosia. That’s in the eastern part of the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula where Russia moved some of its naval assets this year after Ukrainian attacks on the southwestern port of Sevastopol.

The strike puts additional pressure on Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which was supposed to dominate Ukraine but has suffered significant losses. The Kremlin has already withdrawn some of its navy from Crimea to the Russia city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. Ukraine has destroyed or heavily damaged 23 Russian ships and boats and one Russian submarine, Oleksii Goncharenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker representing the Odessa region, told us on Tuesday.

The campaign against the Russian navy has helped Ukraine break Vladimir Putin’s attempted blockade of the Black Sea. In defiance of the Kremlin, at least 305 ships have sailed from Ukrainian ports carrying more than 10 million tons of grain and other exports, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said last week. This has been invaluable to Ukraine’s economy and world food prices. —>READ MORE HERE

NY POST: Ukrainian attack on Crimean port damages Russian warship, Moscow says:

A Ukrainian strike on a Crimean port damaged a large Russian landing ship and resulted in the death of one person Tuesday in the latest of a series of embarrassing Russian losses.

A spate of fiery explosions erupted over the port in Feodosia around 2:30 a.m. local time, a video of the incident showed.

The explosions sent orange towers of flames into the still-dark sky over the Black Sea port, which is part of the Ukrainian peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukrainian Air Force Cmdr. Mykola Oleshchuk hinted at the attack when he thanked personnel involved in the alleged “destruction of the Novocherkassk large landing ship” in a Telegram post, CNN reported.

“And the fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the Air Force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!” Oleshchuk wrote.

Kyiv may have used Western-supplied Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles in the attack, officials suggested.

“A brilliant special operation was carried out, strikes were carried out, we outsmarted the Russians, and we continue to do so now,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Col. Yuriy Ihnat told Radio Svoboda, according to Newsweek.

“Western weapons plus well-planned tactical operations lead to results,” he said.

The Russian defense ministry later confirmed that Ukraine targeted Feodosia with air-borne missiles and that the landing ship was damaged in the attack. —>READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:

+++++Russia-Ukraine News LATEST UPDATES: (REUTERS) (AP) (NYPOST) and (WSJ)+++++

+++++How Ukrainian special forces secured a critical Dnipro River crossing in southern Ukraine+++++

+++++Ukrainian troops eliminate 1,010 invaders, destroy 22 tanks overnight+++++

+++++Almost hundred combat engagements take place over past day – General Staff+++++

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