Ukrainian drones attacked several military facilities in Russia and occupied Crimea overnight on May 17, a source from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed to the Kyiv Independent.
The source said that it was a joint operation carried out by the SBU and Ukraine's military intelligence agency.
"Today's operation proved that the Russians are unable to protect their main naval bases in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk," the source said.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed earlier during the day that 102 aerial and six naval drones had been intercepted and destroyed and did not report any damage or casualties.
The drones were targeted at naval bases of the Black Sea Fleet located in occupied Sevastopol and the Russian city of Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai, the source said. The attack also impacted a power plant near Sevastopol, leading to power outages.
The port in Novorossiysk is where Moscow began redeploying its Black Sea Fleet after a series of devastating Ukrainian strikes, including a missile attack on its headquarters in Sevastopol on Sept. 22, 2023.
The source also confirmed the drone attack on the oil refinery in the Russian town of Tuapse, located on Russia's Black Sea coast.
A military intelligence source confirmed earlier for the Kyiv Independent that the agency carried out a successful drone attack against an oil base in Russia's Rostov Oblast on May 15.
The next day, drones hit production facilities of the state-owned Russian weapons manufacturing company "Basalt" in the city of Tula, a military intelligence source told the Kyiv Independent.
Andrii Kharuk
(Updated: )
