One killed in Ukrainian attack on ferry in Russian Caucasus port

One person was killed and several others were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a ferry in a port, the governor of southern Russia said.

Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said the fire broke out on the ferry in the Kavkaz port but there was no danger of it spreading.

The port is located just a few kilometres from the Kerch Bridge, which allows road and rail travel between Russia and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

“Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead among the crew and port employees,” Kondratiev said.

He added that emergency services were at the scene.

At the end of May, Ukraine attacked the same area, hitting an oil terminal near the Caucasus port.

The area around the Russian-built bridge over the Kerch Strait has been repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian forces since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Russian naval ships based in Crimea have been sunk or damaged. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian navy commander said Russia’s Black Sea Fleet had to move nearly all of its warships from occupied Crimea to other ports.

In a separate development overnight, Ukrainian air defenses shot down seven Shahed attack drones and a Russian-fired cruise missile.

Ukraine’s energy ministry said a Russian drone struck a critical infrastructure facility in the Sumy region, cutting off power to 50,000 consumers.

The night before, the head of the Kharkiv military administration in northeastern Ukraine, Oleh Sinyubov, said an educational institute had been damaged in a Russian attack on the settlement of Derhachi, north of the city of Kharkiv.

The Russian Defense Ministry now claims that about Fifty foreign “trainers and mercenaries” were killed in the strike, with no evidence provided other than a video of the alleged attack. No casualties were reported Monday.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have shot down 25 Ukrainian drones in the west of the country and over Crimea, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Tuesday.

The night before, the ministry said it had shot down more than 85 Ukrainian drones.