Ukraine claims fighter jets have destroyed a large Russian warship in Crimea | DW News

Footage from the port of Feodosia in occupied Crimea shows a huge explosion overnight. Russia confirms the ship was damaged and says one person was killed. Moscow also says air defense systems destroyed the Ukrainian fighter jets that targeted the ship. Several buildings in the area suffered damage, believed to have been caused by a blast wave from the explosion. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the country’s air force on the Telegram social media site on Tuesday for the overnight attack on Feodosia in occupied Crimea that Ukrainian officials believe destroyed a Russian landing craft. “I am grateful to our Air Force for the impressive replenishment of the Russian underwater Black Sea fleet with another vessel. The occupiers will not have a single peaceful place in Ukraine,” he wrote, implying the ship had been sunk. So far, Russian officials have only acknowledged the vessel taking damage. But unverified images purporting to show the overnight airstrike showed a large explosion at the scene which Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday they believed to be a munitions explosion on board. “We can see how powerful the explosion was, what the detonation was like. After that, it’s very hard for a ship to survive, because this was not a rocket, this is the detonation of munitions,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat told Radio Free Europe.