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The Russian military has foiled a Ukrainian attempt to attack facilities near Sevastopol port in the Crimean Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said on July 16.
The ministry’s announcement came after Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev reported the destruction of several drones near the city.
“This morning, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack by seven unmanned aerial vehicles and two water surface drones on facilities on the territory of the Crimean peninsula near the city of Sevastopol was foiled,” the governor said, according to TASS.
Two aerial drones were shot down by air defense systems, and five were suppressed by electronic warfare, crashing without reaching the target, the Russian MoD said, adding that two naval drones were spotted in the northern part of the Black Sea and destroyed by fire from patrol boats with standard weapons.
“There were no casualties or damage as a result of the foiled terrorist attack,” the ministry said.
Video footage from Sevastopol showed Russian forces firing at a naval drone near the city’s key port, where a key base is located.
The failed attack came as Kiev forces were struggling to make any meaningful gains more than five weeks into their counteroffensive.
A spokesman for the Russian Vostok Group of Forces told TASS on July 16 that the group had repelled several Ukrainian attacks in the South Donetsk direction, destroying the enemy’s armored vehicles and personnel.
“Forward units of the battlegroup East in the south of the Donetsk Region, supported by artillery and aircraft, repelled several attacks of the enemy that attempted an offensive toward Makarovka, Staromayorskoye and Urozhaynoye. Destroyed during the battle were Ukrainian armored fighting vehicles and other motor vehicles. The enemy infantry group has been eliminated,” the spokesman.
According to the spokesman, artillery fire destroyed a group of militants near Novodonetskoye, a Ukrainian reconnaissance group attempting to advance toward Staromayorskoye, as well as a mortar unit in Novomayorskoye and an ammunition depot in Prechistovka. In addition, army aircraft hit clusters of nationalists in Makarovka, Novodonetskoye and Urozhaynoye.
In the Zaporozhye Region, aerial reconnaissance detected, and artillery fire destroyed, one Ukrainian reconnaissance unit, armored fighting vehicles and clusters of militants near Priyutnoye. Also, a Ukrainian reconnaissance unit was eliminated near Lobkovoye.
A counterbattery operation destroyed a towed howitzer near Charivnoye, according to the spokesman, who also said that heavy flamethrowing systems Solntsepyok struck clusters of Ukrainian personnel north of Rabotino.
Meanwhile, the Russian Zapad Group of Forces announced that its artillery had thwarted an attempt to rotate units of Ukraine’s 28th Separate Rifle Battalion near Figalevka in the Kupyansk direction.
In addition, the group’s T-72B3 tanks, anti-tank systems, Msta-B towed howitzers and Giatsint-S self-propelled howitzers targeted the positions of the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade near Masyutovka, Orlyanskoye and Novomlynsk. A Tor-M2U air defense system of the group also shot down a Furia reconnaissance drone near Tokarevka.
Near Berestovoye, Stelmakhovka, Tabaevka, the group’s T-72B3 and T-80 tanks, Msta-S self-propelled howitzers and D-30 towed howitzers hit the positions of the 32nd Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 103 1st Separate Territorial Defense Brigade.
Ukrainian losses in this direction amounted to more than a platoon of troops, a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle as well as a mortar cannon.
Furthermore, new videos from the front showed recent strikes by Ka-52 attack helicopters, the destruction of what appears to be a D-30 towed howitzer near Kamenskoe, a strike on a Polish-made Krab self-propelled howitzer in Kleshcheevka and a series of artillery strikes that targeted a storage facility of Kiev forces near Volchansk.
Overall, the Ukrainian attack on Crimea was likely an attempt to shift attention away from the failing counteroffensive. The Kiev regime will likely increase such attacks as its forces fail to make any gains and continue to sustain heavy losses across the front.
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