The Ministry of Defence has warned that Russia’s prized Black Sea Fleet is struggling to contend with threats to Ukraine’s southern flank.
In their morning briefing the UK ministry said: “In recent weeks, the Naval Aviation component of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has assumed a particularly important role in the Fleet’s operations as it struggles to deal with concurrent threats on the southern flank of the Ukraine war.
“Naval Aviation is emphasising maritime air patrol operations, highly likely with a primary mission of the early identification of uncrewed surface vessels.”
It came as one person is dead and six injured including two children as Russian shelling continues to hammer Ukraine‘s southern region of Kherson overnight.
On the Telegram messaging app the governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Russian forces had launched 71 attacks in the past 24 hours, “aimed at the residential districts”, as well as shops and medical infrastructure, among other establishments.
Twenty of the air and land attacks targeted the city of Kherson, the region’s administrative district, the governor added, while authorities promptly doused a fire sparked by shelling early on Monday.
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