A UKRAINIAN missile strike targeted a key Russian landing ship in occupied Crimea, sparking a huge fireball in the night sky.
Shocked residents caught the moment the Storm Shadow missile strike caused the fiery Boxing Day explosion.
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There were unconfirmed Ukrainian claims that “dozens” of Russians had died on Telegram.
“As we are informed, there are dozens of dead and wounded on the Novocherkassk landing ship,” said the Crimean Wind channel.
“Ambulances are rushing back and forth.”
Windows in residential blocks near the port were smashed in by the brutal force of the explosion.
And authorities rushed to evacuate people close to the Boxing Day inferno as some were put into temporary accomodation.
Commander of Ukraine’s air force, Lt-Gen Mykola Oleshchuk, claimed that the major Russian Navy vessel Novocherkassk had been hit.
He wrote on Telegram: “And the fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the Air Force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!”
It comes as a major blow for Vladimir Putin amid his failing war in Ukraine.
The Putin-appointed head of annexed Crimea Sergey Aksyonov admitted that an enemy attack had been carried out in the Feodosia region, but did not initially comment on the claims a key Russian warship had been lost.
The Novocherkassk is believed to be one of only a few warships that Russia had not moved further east for safety after previous Ukrainian strikes.
Many were moved from major naval port Sevastopol to Novorossiysk in order to be further away from Ukraine’s reach.
The Russian defence ministry later admitted the large landing ship was hit in the Ukrainian attack.
And the occupation authorities in Crimea admitted that one person died and two were wounded in the attack on Feodosia.
Previously, the Russians have refused to acknowledge deaths and casualties on warships hit by Ukraine.
“Tonight, while repelling an attack by the Ukrainian armed forces with the use of aircraft guided missiles at the Feodosia base, the large landing ship Novocherkassk was damaged,” said a statement from the defence ministry.
“During an anti-aircraft battle, two Su-24 tactical aircraft of the enemy were destroyed by air defence systems, in the area of the village of Zhovten, launching aircraft guided missiles.”
It is unusual for the Russian side to admit damage to its warships.
The ministry did not say how extensive the damage was.
The attack unfolded at 2:50am local time on Boxing Day and the strong inferno reportedly lasted about 30 minutes.
Unconfirmed reports said the strike was from a Storm Shadow missile as supplied by the UK or France.
In a video recorded soon after the explosion – as the fireball gathered steam – two men, possibly military, appear at odds over whether the strike took out a ship.
Shaken from their beds by the force of the blast, they watch from their window.
The voices say: “It was a ship for sure.
“What an explosion!
“Something hit so hard. This is the port [that was hit], 100 per cent.
“It wasn’t a ship, it’s right behind the block of flats.
“I feel the heat [from the explosion] even here [in our flat].
“Doesn’t look like something was destroyed [in our flat], does it?
“Well, I was knocked down by the explosion wave.”
Last month Ukraine destroyed Vladimir Putin’s newest Black Sea Fleet warship – missile carrier Askold – in Kerch before it had even been sent to sea.
And another brutal strike destroyed the Sevastopol headquarters of Putin’s Black Sea Fleet on 22 September.
Nine days earlier Ukrainian missiles hit the £250 million Kilo-class attack submarine Rostov-on-Don and large landing ship Minsk in a repair shipyard in naval port Sevastopol.
It took Russia a year to admit it had lost the landing ship Saratov in a missile strike in Berdiansk, a port in the Sea of Azov.
Two more similar warships, the Novocherkassk and Caesar Kunikov, were earlier damaged, according to reports.
Multiple warships have been damaged, the most embarrassing for Putin being the Moskva frigate – Black Sea Fleet flagship – which was sunk in a strike by Ukrainian Neptune missiles in April 2022.
The warship Novocherkassk had been damaged earlier in the war, and evidently repaired.
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