Ukraine's military said it targeted the command center of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Crimea on Wednesday, as a U.S. official said Washington was preparing to announce significant additional military support for Kiev.
The Ukrainian military said the attack on the headquarters of the Russian fleet was successful, without providing details.
Ahead of Ukraine's announcement that the headquarters of the Russian fleet had been targeted, Mikhail Razvogaev, governor of the city of Sevastopol in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, said missile defenses had foiled a missile attack on the city, which is home to the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
Razgogaev said possible damage was being investigated by the scattered parts of the dropped rockets.
Earlier, the governor of Sevastopol announced that Russian defenses had shot down drones near the city.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has intensified attacks in Crimea using drones and drones to strike Russian bases and ships, and Ukrainian intelligence sources have reported landings on the Crimean coast.
Moscow warned yesterday that it would respond forcefully to Ukrainian attacks on Crimea.
Attacks by marchers
Also in the field developments, the Ukrainian military announced Wednesday that it had destroyed 17 of the 24 Iranian-made Shahed 131 and Shahid 136 drones that carried out attacks on several regions last night.
The governor of the Poltava region (centre) reported a fire at an oil refinery after it was targeted by Russian missiles.
The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region (center) also announced that the Nikopol region was subjected to Russian shelling for the second night in a row, noting that the shelling caused material damage.
The Ukrainian official said Ukrainian defenses shot down two Russian drones over the area.
Ukrainian marches yesterday attacked warehouses in the Lviv region (west), and Ukrainian authorities said that some of the targeted warehouses contained aid.
In Kherson (south), Ukrainian sources reported that two people were killed and others wounded in Russian army shelling.
In Russia, a fire broke out this morning in a fuel tank in the Adler region near Sochi airport on the Black Sea, and Russian news sites reported that the fire broke out in the tank, and extended over a distance of 100 square meters after an explosion whose causes are not yet known.
For his part, the governor of Krasnodar confirmed that a fire broke out in the reservoir without casualties.
Military aid
Meanwhile, a US official said that the United States will announce on Thursday a new military aid package for Kiev on the occasion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington, where he will meet President Joe Biden.
Since the outbreak of war in late February 2022, Washington has provided more than $40 billion in aid to Kiev, including various weapons, including howitzers, Patriot systems, drones and cluster munitions, and Ukraine is expected to soon receive US Abrams tanks.
Reuters quoted Ukrainian soldiers near the Russian-controlled city of Bakhamut as needing advanced Western weapons such as the U.S. long-range Hemars missile system in order to make further progress on the eastern front.
Reuters noted that while some Ukrainian units have acquired modern Western weapons, others still rely heavily on Soviet weapons such as Grad launchers.
One soldier at a site near Bakhmut said they wanted at least the Czech Vambire system.
Reuters quoted Ukrainian fighters on this axis as being more optimistic than before, noting that the Ukrainian army announced a few days ago that it had taken control of the villages of Klishevka and Andreevka, south of Pakhmut.
Moscow has not acknowledged the loss of the two villages and maintains that fighting continues around Bakhamout, which was seized by Russian Wagner Special Group forces in May.
Ukraine's June 4 counteroffensive has faced criticism from some Western officials, and Kiev has responded that its forces are steadily advancing against Russian minefields and fortifications built over months.