The Russian navy “repelled” a drone attack on the port of Sevastopol in Moscow-annexed Crimea early on Wednesday, the Kremlin-backed governor of the city said.
The peninsula, seized by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, is home to Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet and has been hit by a series of drone attacks since the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine.
The attack came just four days after President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Sevastopol.
“In total, three objects have been destroyed,” the Russian-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.
He said military personnel had shot at the drones with “small arms” and that “air defence was also working”.
Razvozhayev added there were no casualties and claimed no ships had been damaged, but said that the explosions blew out windows in nearby buildings.
These included the Moscow House cultural centre, a well known building that is beyond the port.
But Razvozhayev downplayed the attack, saying the navy “confidently and calmly” repelled it. He urged calm saying the “situation was under control”.
In a later post, he dismissed reports that people were leaving Crimea, saying it was a “lie” spread by Kyiv.
“Information is spreading about evacuations from the peninsula by ferry crossings and other such nonsense,” he said.
A day earlier Kyiv said Russian missiles were destroyed in a blast in Crimea, but denied responsibility for the incident.
In October, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was hit by a major drone attack that the Kremlin blamed on Ukraine.Agence France-Presse