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Good morning,
Attack On Sevastopol, Crimea
History has been made say naval experts, with Ukraines attack on the Russian Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol Bay.
Ukraine used as many as 9 drones in what the Russians characterize as a “massive” attack damaging at least one warship.
What’s remarkable is this was not done with unmanned aerial drones, but with USV’s, unmanned surface vessels remotely guided and packed with explosives.
Video posted on Telegram and later on Twitter, show the drones coming under helicopter attack and shelling, before at least one slams into a Russian warship, most likely the Admiral Makarov, and another ship identified as a minesweeper.
Hackers are said to have cut into Russia TV and posted the video of the attacks with messages saying there will be more like these, including on Russia’s submarine fleet.
The video is worth watching here, to see how these drones manoeuvre and evade counter fire, and advance on Russian ships.
This tweet from the former U.S. Army Commander of Europe criticized the term “massive” attack and warned soon powerful HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) given to Ukraine by America, will be within range of Crimea and then attacks will be massive.
Note: Crimea was invaded by Russian forces in 2014 and a referendum on annexation, which the international community said was illegal, was carried out. Crimea was given to Ukraine in 1954, by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Russian leader Vladimir Putin noted in his address in March of 2014 -
“Let me note too that we have already heard declarations from Kiev about Ukraine soon joining NATO. What would this have meant for Crimea and Sevastopol in the future? It would have meant that NATO’s navy would be right there in this city of Russia’s military glory, and this would create not an illusory but a perfectly real threat to the whole of southern Russia”.
For Putin the recent attack on the Crimean bridge linking the Peninsula to Russia, and now this naval attack, is an emotional trip wire like few others.
Russia responded to the bridge attack by shelling Ukrainian cities and power stations for more than a week.
At this moment Russia has announced it will suspend the grain deal which was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July, and allowed commercial vessels carrying agricultural products to leave Ukraine and cross the Black Sea to Turkey, where their cargo would be inspected by a joint command that included officials from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations.
****Russia will also likely respond to the drone attack with military means, and soon.****
“It’s really outrageous to increase starvation,” President Biden said on Saturday, after voting in Delaware. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing,” he added, referring to the Russians.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky who has not confirmed the drone attack, said the grain shipments are an issue for the G20 meeting soon in Indonesia asking “how can Russia be among the G20 if it is deliberately working for starvation on several continents?”
As of Oct. 27, more than 9.2 million tons of grain and other food had been exported under the agreement, according to United Nations data.
Russia also accused British troops of being involved in Saturday's attack. It also accused the UK of blowing up gas pipelines last month. And the UK Ministry of Defence said Russia was "peddling false claims of an epic scale".
Dana Lewis