UKRAINE hit Russia with one of the heaviest bombardments of the war so far as over 100 drones blitzed three key ports.
Explosions lit up the sky last night in Novorossiysk, Sevastopol and Tuapse as the cities were plunged into darkness and fires still raged this morning.
East2WestA huge inferno rages in the key port city of Novorossiysk[/caption]
Russia failed to repel the mass attack on its energy infrastructureEast2West
A major oil refinery in Tuapse continues to burn this morningTwitter
There was a near-total failure of Russian air defences to stall the mass attack on Novorossiysk.
Locals reported the sounds of at least 40 explosions, while a top official ordered residents: “No one leaves the house. Neither to school, nor to work.”
Remarkable footage showed multiple loudly-buzzing Ukrainian kamikaze drones attacking an oil depot and port facilities in Novorossiysk at around 3am.
Reports suggested public transportation was not running, with traffic closed on some streets and local schools temporarily shut.
One observer said: “The port was blown up! Our port was blown up!”
Both the Novorossiysk fuel oil terminal and the Transneft terminal were attacked.
Novorossiysk is Putin’s premier naval port in the Black Sea after most of his warships were driven out of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea by Ukrainian attacks.
Russian defenders appeared to have been surprised by the attack.
Sevastopol was also under attack as drones buzzed above the city and explosions were heard as a power plant was hit, causing partial power cuts.
A major oil refinery was blitzed in the port and resort of Tuapse causing a large inferno.
Footage showed the moment in the early morning light as a drone flew across the sky and struck the refinery which was already burning from an earlier hit.
The state-owned Rosneft facility is Russia’s only oil refinery on the Black Sea, and one of the ten largest in the country.
Bursts of machine gun fire were heard in a failed bid to stop the kamikaze drones – followed by three explosions as they hit the target.
Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Sevastopol, claimed to have “successfully repelled a massive enemy attack” on the naval port, which serves as headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
He said “dozens” of aerial drones and “more than five sea drones were destroyed.”
East2WestA drone can be seen flying towards the oil refinery in Tuapse as it burns[/caption]
East2WestNovorossiysk was plunged into darkness after several key sites were hit[/caption]
Russia admitted it faced more than 100 drones in the overnight onslaught which came as Vladimir Putin was on his official visit to China along with his new defence minister Andrey Belousov, 65.
In an inauspicious start for the new defence chief, satellite evidence now shows Ukrainian claims this week to be correct over the substantial destruction of Belbek airbase in crimea.
Two days of MGM-140 ATACMS cluster missile attacks by Ukraine blitzed Russian jets and a military warehouse.
The successful attacks on Belbek has led to fury among Russian war-backers over the back of air defence at this key base.
The Ukrainian barrage came as Kyiv was under pressure from Russian territorial gains in the Kharkiv region.
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