Ukraine destroyed a state-of-the-art Russian air defence system in an overnight drone and missile attack in annexed Crimea, Kyiv has claimed.

Kyiv‘s security service (SBU) managed to blind the S-400 ‘Triumf’ system by firing a series of drones at its radar and antenna before the Navy fired two its newly-developed Neptune cruise missiles at the system’s launch complexes, a Ukrainian intelligence source said.

Video footage showed powerful explosions and a plume of smoke rising in the night sky near the western town of Yevatoriya, which is where the Russian facility is located.

The strikes on the S-400 is significant since the state-of-the-art air defence system and associated radar should detect and nullify drones and missiles over some 200 miles.

And it illustrates yet again the success of Ukraine’s Neptune anti-ship missile, which has been modified to attack ground targets, military analysts say. 

Last month, Ukraine detonated a modified subsonic Neptune missile in Crimea, destroying another of Russia‘s S-400 Triumf air defence systems in a spectacular explosion that also took out Russian troops.

Initial speculation was that Kyiv had used a British or French supplied Storm Shadow missile with pinpoint accuracy in last month’s deadly strike on Olenivka at Cape Tarkhankut in northwest Crimea. 

But a Ukrainian official confirmed that the attack was ‘100 per cent carried out by a modified Neptune’. 

Russia has yet to comment on the latest attack on the S-400 Triumf system. Instead, Moscow said its air defences shot down 11 attack drones overnight over Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014. 

Debris from the Ukrainian drones was found in Yevpatoriya, said Russian reports, while locals reported hearing 15 explosions that caused buildings to shake.

The S-400 ‘Triumf’ system is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles. It can also be used on ground targets. 

Separately in the Russian region of Saratov, near the village of Krasny Oktyabr, a huge explosion on a major gas pipeline sent flames shooting into the sky today. 

The cause of this giant blast was not immediately clear and an investigation is underway, but Russia is facing a rising tide of sabotage attacks. 

In the Black Sea, Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had repelled a concerted attack by five kamikaze marine drones on patrol ship Sergei Kotov.

The ship had used its weapons to destroy the sea drones, according to Russian sources.

Meanwhile, three aircraft-type aerial drones were downed in the Bryanak region close to the Ukrainian border, say the Moscow authorities.

Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russia – and Putin-held territory – in recent weeks. 

On Wednesday, Ukraine launched missiles at the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home to the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet, in an attack that signalled Ukraine’s growing missile capabilities.

The missile attack on the Sevastopol Shipyard caused heavy damage to a large Russian landing ship and submarine, commercial satellite imagery showed. 

Kyiv said on Wednesday the two vessels were likely beyond repair after the pre-dawn missile attack on the port city while Russia’s defence ministry confirmed the strike, but said the vessels would be fully repaired and return to service. 

Overhead images of the shipyard taken by the Black Sky company the day before and the day of the September 13 attack showed two vessels in dry dock were visibly damaged.

‘The Minsk Project 775 Ropucha-class landing ship and the Rostov-on-Don Kilo-class submarine vessels… sustained damage,’ the company wrote on the X social media platform late on Wednesday, publishing the images.

The strike was seen by military analysts as the biggest attack of the war on Sevastopol, which is home of the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued to use its newly-developed Neptune missiles in the war – as was the case in today’s overnight strike. 

The new missile is now designed to hit ground targets, with modifications including changes to its GPS system and a vastly extended range. 

One of the anti-ship missiles famously sank the Moskva flagship of Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea Fleet last year. 

Kyiv has had to turn to the development of its own long-range missiles after allied nations supplying munitions stipulated that they could not be used outside of Ukraine’s territory.

British cruise missiles were used in the devastating bombardment of the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet earlier today in occupied Crimea.

The UK-provided Storm Shadow missiles struck Russia’s attack submarine, the Rostov-on-Don, and amphibious landing ship, the Minsk, in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea. The loss of the Rostov-on-Don is particularly significant as it has been used to launch Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities.

The strike is the first attack on a Russian submarine since the Second World War.

The overnight attack on the Black Sea fleet raises the prospect of Russia being forced to reduce its naval presence on the Crimean peninsula, which would be a huge blow to the Kremlin’s war effort.

The peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014, is becoming increasingly vulnerable as the West provides Ukraine with long-range missiles and its forces push back the Russian frontline.

Dramatic pictures showed huge flames rising from the Sevastopol dry dock where, according to the Kremlin, the vessels were being repaired.

The attack followed a raid on Russian radar systems, disabling part of the air defence systems around Sevastopol.

The attack – Ukraine’s biggest on the region since the start of the war – damaged a Russian submarine and a warship in a pre-dawn raid on the Sevastopol shipyard.

As many as ten missiles were fired at the facility, seven of which Russia claimed to have shot down. The strike set the shipyard ablaze and wounded at least 24.

New information from a Ukrainian and a Western source said that British Storm Shadow missiles, delivered to Ukraine this year, were used in the attack.

Footage appeared to show the large Russian landing ship, the Minsk, was damaged in the attack – previously believed to have been hit by a Storm Shadow.

The 367ft-long vessel was undergoing repairs in a shipyard at the time of the attack. 

A strategically important shipbuilding and repair yard was engulfed in flames and a power plant and other Black Sea naval facilities were also hit, it appeared.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine launched ten cruise missiles at the shipyard and three sea drones at Russian ships in the Black Sea. 

Seven missiles were shot down and all the sea drones have been destroyed, the military said, but some missiles damaged two ships being repaired in the shipyard, in addition to some buildings.

‘It was Storm Shadow,’ a source told Sky News. 

Ukraine’s RBC-Ukraine news outlet reported, citing unnamed sources in Ukrainian military intelligence, that an amphibious landing ship and a submarine were damaged in the attack.

Some Russian messaging app channels made the same claim. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.

Kyiv almost never acknowledges responsibility for attacks on Crimea or Russian regions that have become regular in recent months.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, Moscow-appointed governor of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, said on Telegram that 24 people were injured in the fire. He posted a photo of the blaze.

‘The Ukrainian armed forces launched a strike with ten cruise missiles at the S. Ordzhonikidze ship repair plant,’ Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram.

Ukraine also ‘attempted an attack with three unmanned boats at a detachment of ships of the Black Sea fleet’ during a sea crossing, it added.

‘Air defence systems shot down seven cruise missiles, and the patrol ship Vasily Bykov destroyed all unmanned boats. As a result of being hit by enemy cruise missiles, two ships undergoing repairs were damaged.’ 

The Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, has been a frequent target in the 18-month-old war.

The Sevastopol shipyard is of strategic importance to Russia as vessels in its Black Sea fleet – some already damaged in strikes – are being repaired there.

Russia’s vulnerability in the Black Sea was demonstrated early on in the war when Ukraine struck the fleet’s flagship vessel – the Moskva – with two missiles, ultimately causing it to sink. The true loss of life has never been revealed by Russia.

Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to take back the Crimean peninsula.

The attack is the latest military embarrassment for the Russian President who today is meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in the Far East. 

The highly-anticipated meeting could see the two allies agree on a sanctions-busting arms deal to support Moscow‘s on-going invasion in Ukraine.

Its supply of munitions dwindling as it fights to fend off Kyiv’s counteroffensive.

Earlier today, the Russian warmonger shook hands enthusiastically with Kim as soon as he stepped out of his black limousine and said he was ‘very glad to see him’.

Kim, one of the few leaders who has stuck by the despot since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine began 19 months ago, told the Russian despot he was fighting a ‘sacred war’ with the West and their two countries would together battle with ‘imperialism’. 

The attack against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters came as Moscow launched drones against Ukraine’s Odesa region in the pre-dawn hours. 

Like Sevastopol, Odesa also sits on the Black Sea.

The attacks damaged port and civilian infrastructure in Odesa’s Izmail district and wounded six people, three seriously, Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.

Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 32 of 44 Shahed-type drones overnight, with most of them launched toward the southern parts of the Odesa district.

Russian and Chinese officials stood shoulder to shoulder with Kim Jong Un as they reviewed North Korea’s latest nuclear-capable missiles and new attack drones at a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korean state media showed on Friday.

The widely anticipated parade in the capital on Thursday night commemorated the 70th anniversary of the armistice that ended of the Korean War on July 27, 1953 – celebrated in North Korea as ‘Victory Day’.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit was the first by Moscow’s top defence official since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. China’s visitors were the country’s first such delegation since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Their appearance at events with the North’s nuclear missiles – banned by the United Nations Security Council with Chinese and Russian support – marked a contrast with previous years, when Beijing and Moscow sought to distance themselves from their neighbour’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development.

Kim, Shoigu and Chinese Communist Party Politburo member Li Hongzhong talked, laughed and saluted as North Korean troops marched and weapons rolled below, photos released by North Korean state media showed, before Kim gave Shoigu a tour of a plush official building adorned with portraits of Vladimir Putin.

The parade included North Korea’s latest Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to KCNA, which are believed to have the range to strike targets anywhere in the United States.

The event also featured a flyover by new attack and spy drones, KCNA reported.

Kim hosted a reception and had a luncheon with Shoigu, where the North Korean leader vowed solidarity with the Russian people and its military.

Shoigu praised the North Korean military as the strongest in the world, and the two discussed strategic security and defence cooperation, KCNA said.

At another meeting, Shoigu read a congratulatory speech from Russian President Putin who thanked North Korea for its support during the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, state media reported.

Bizarrely, a large portrait of Putin was seen mounted in a corridor walked by Kim and Shoigu together, the Russian leader’s face seen looming over the pair from a wall opposite a second portrait of the North Korean dictator.

Washington has accused Pyongyang of providing weapons to Russia for its war effort in Ukraine, an accusation that North Korea has angrily denied.

State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Thursday the U.S. was ‘incredibly concerned’ about ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Moscow has also denied conducting any arms transactions with its neighbour.

The new surveillance drones could be used to survey targets in real time, conduct damage assessment in a war and generally enhance strategic situational awareness, said Ankit Panda of the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In December five North Korean drones crossed into the South, prompting Seoul’s military to scramble fighter jets and helicopters, and increase anti-drone measures at key facilities, including the presidential office.

The new attack drones would have limited use in a war on the Korean Peninsula given their vulnerability to anti-aircraft defences, but ‘North Korea may seek to offer these drones to external customers,’ Panda said.

The drones were among the weapons displayed at an arms fair toured by Kim and Shoigu this week in Pyongyang, state media photos showed.

Putin’s defence minister is believed to have sealed secret agreements for new supplies of arms to deploy in his illegal war against Ukraine.

Shoigu remained in North Korea longer than expected – after his ministry earlier announced plans to depart on Thursday.

He was shown finally leaving early Friday, his fourth day visiting the repressive state despite the demands of the war in Ukraine where he is suffering significant setbacks in Kyiv’s counteroffensive.

Pro-war bloggers in Russia criticised him for having his eye off the ball as Ukraine steps up its military fightback.

But the fear is that a secret pact will see ammunition and drones delivered to Russia to use for yet more killing in Ukraine.

Shoigu’s visit has seen unprecedented Russian kowtowing to the 39-year-old tyrant.

In a speech at the parade, Defence Minister General Kang Sun Nam accused the United States and its allies of increasing tensions in the region.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear programs since 2006. This includes a ban on the development of ballistic missiles.

In recent years Russia and China have opposed U.S.-led efforts to impose further sanctions on North Korea over its continued pursuit of ballistic missiles, arguing existing measures should be eased for humanitarian purposes and to help entice Pyongyang to negotiate.

The last time North Korea invited foreign government delegates for a military parade was in February 2018, when it held a low-key event that excluded Kim’s ICBMs.

North Korea at the time was initiating diplomacy with Seoul and Washington as Kim attempted to leverage his nukes for badly needed economic benefits.

Those efforts led to a summit between Kim and then-U.S. President Donald Trump that June, but the diplomacy collapsed after their second meeting in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of their nuclear capabilities.

Kim has since ramped up the development of the nuclear arms that he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival while berating ‘gangster-like’ U.S. sanctions and pressure.

The Chinese and Russian presence at events with banned ballistic missiles cast doubts on those countries’ willingness to enforce sanctions, said Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

‘It doesn’t help when two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council openly support a North Korean regime that violates human rights and flouts resolutions banning its nuclear and missile development,’ Easley said.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, ‘All members of Security Council and, frankly, all member states of the U.N., share the same responsibility to uphold Security Council resolutions.’

The Kremlin has warned the US and Britain they will be seen as ‘full-fledged’ participants in the war in Ukraine if Storm Shadow and HIMARS missiles are used to hit targets in Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea.

Vladimir Putin‘s defence minister Sergei Shoigu warned he will target ‘decision-making centres’ in Ukraine – implying he plans to order his military to target Volodymyr Zelensky and his government leaders in Kyiv.

Shoigu said: ‘According to our information, the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is planning to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation, including Crimea, with HIMARS and Storm Shadow missiles.

‘The use of these missiles outside the area of the special military operation would mean a full-fledged involvement of the US and UK in the conflict entailing immediate strikes on the decision-making centres in Ukraine.’

His claim that Crimea is part of Russia is disputed by the West – and international law – which regards it as Ukrainian.

Putin forcibly annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.

So far Ukraine has used long-range British-supplied Storm Shadow and US-provided HIMARS to hit targets in Russian-occupied areas of mainland Ukraine, not including Crimea.

Shoigu’s threat came as Russia admitted today that it had lost another colonel in an earlier Storm Shadow strike close to Crimea, on the Arabat Spit.

Col Sergei Postovalov, 53, is due to be buried tomorrow after he was fatally wounded in the 10 June strike which hit a Russian command post close to Henichesk minutes after Putin’s deputy premier Denis Manturov had visited.

Putin was reported to have visited the site in April.

Postovalov was a colonel in the Russian Interior Ministry forces.

His death follows the killing of Russian army Major-General Sergey Goryachev, 52, in a strike in annexed Zaporizhzhia region earlier this month – also seen as in a Storm Shadow attack carried out by Ukraine’s forces.

Shoigu is clearly rattled at the power of especially the Storm Shadow with a range of 155 miles, which has been fired from Ukrainian Su-24 war planes.

‘The Kyiv regime is employing a large number of Western weapons and elite formations whose personnel have been trained by NATO specialists,’ Shoigu told the collegium of the Russian defence ministry.

Last week, Yevgeny Balitsky, Moscow-appointed head of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region in Ukraine, admitted the weapons are causing ‘trouble’ and are even more problematic for the Kremlin’s armies than the US-supplied HIMARS systems.

His words confirm the impression that the long-range Storm Shadow has been a game changer for the Ukrainians as Kyiv launches its counteroffensive.

‘They certainly give us trouble with their missiles, I must say, especially Storm Shadow,’ said Balitsky.

‘We’ve somehow learned how to shoot down [US-supplied] HIMARS.

But the [British-supplied] Shadow ones are even harder. They arrive, and have a bigger radius. So it’s a problem for us.

‘In fact, our air defence is having a hard time with [Storm Shadow].

‘It shoots them down, but there’s only a 50 per cent chance of the missiles being shot down.’ 

He added: ‘Out of four, three have recently reached us.

‘Sometimes two make it. The missile is modern, although it is not the newest, but it is fast enough, it flies properly. I mean, at different speeds, at varying altitudes, changing modes, so it is not easy to shoot down.’

Britain announced the supply of Anglo-French-designed Storm Shadows to Ukraine on May 11, answering a long-time demand from Kyiv for long-range missiles to help defend their territory against Putin’s invading armies.

Storm Shadows have also struck occupied port cities Berdiansk and Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, say reports. And the £2.2million-per-unit missiles were used to target Luhansk in the occupied Donbas.

The GPS-guided ground-hugging missiles with a 450kg warhead have a range of around 155 miles. The missiles allow Ukrainian forces to strike deeper into Russian-held territory than was previously possible.

Storm Shadow is a low-observable, long-range, air-launched cruise missile developed since 1994 by Matra and British Aerospace, and now manufactured by MBDA.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace previously confirmed the missiles had been used by Ukraine on May 18– but declined to give further details. 

He said the missiles gave the Ukrainians the ability to strike Russian command and control centres which had been moved further behind the front line to keep them out of range of the rocket artillery systems the West had supplied to Kyiv. 

Ukraine is the only country to be publicly supplied with these missiles by the UK.

Britain also became the first country to provide long-range precision missiles to Ukraine with the delivery.

They were also suspected to have been used this month when Russian MP Viktor Vodolatsky sustained injuries after an attack on May 15. 

The missiles were used for the first time operationally by UK forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where they were tested by the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron. 

The RAF and the French Air Force have used them against Isis. Britain also used them against Syrian forces in 2018.

Vladimir Putin appeared adrift from reality today as he told Russians the ‘biggest pleasure and happiness is children’ as his ballistic missiles killed a nine-year-old girl and her mother in Kyiv.

The dictator addressed his people on Children’s Day in both Russia and Ukraine.

The out-of-touch 70-year-old president – believed to have a secret young family with Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva who he has hidden from his people – pontificated: ‘What is it, to live for yourself?

‘What does it mean? Perhaps it means to enjoy yourself, to enjoy life.

‘But it looks like those who say it don’t understand that the biggest pleasure and happiness is children.’

He spoke as a Kyiv girl was killed and thousands of children were evacuated from Belgorod region – where anti-Putin partisans backed by Ukraine carried out intense shelling.

Harrowing photos showed a grandmother collapsed in grief today after she discovered her daughter and granddaughter had been killed in the strike in Ukraine’s capital that left three dead. 

Her agonising screams and wails tore through the deathly silence in the city as she saw the charred bodies of her daughter and nine-year-old granddaughter on the ground in front of her.

The barrage of cruise and ballistic missiles struck at 3am and tore through homes, a kindergarten and a medical clinic in the Ukrainian capital, leaving a scene of utter devastation.

The strikes have been relentlessly hitting the capital for weeks. 

Bizarrely, Putin also informed Russians about his sleeping habits as his war inflicted terror both on Ukrainians and his own people.

‘Of course, like all people I sleep,’ he announced.

‘Unlike some people, you know, I try not to give up playing sports, and this helps in my work.

‘I sleep, well, in general, maybe a little, six to seven hours, six mostly.

‘Today, however, I slept much less, it happened so.’

On Tuesday it is believed he was also woken by explosions from Ukrainian drones near his high security official residence in Moscow region.

His incongruous ramblings aired today came as videos showed the Russian city of Belgorod hit by powerful explosions.

Earlier repeated shelling on blitzed Russian border town Shebekino led to mass evacuations amid fears they will lose control of a swathe of territory in his latest humiliation of the war.

The attacks meant Russians tasted the horror that Putin has inflicted on Ukrainian towns and cities for more than 15 months.

It was the most intense day of attacks on Russian territory since the start of the war deepening the failure of Putin’s war which was meant to see Ukraine crumble in less than a week.

One strike hit a plant of Monocrystal, in Shebekino.

Monocrystal is the world’s largest producer of artificial sapphires, used in the production of expensive glass for Apple smart watches.

But the premises were reportedly used by the Russian military.

The Russian Volunteer Corps claimed to be fighting on the outskirts of Shebekino.

The Free Russia Legion issued an appeal to Russian servicemen to mutiny.

‘The time has come to make the right decision,’ they said in a statement.

‘You are sent to a criminal, predatory war – but you are not slaves.

‘The Putin regime puts you before a choice: go to die in a foreign country, or undergo cannibalistic prison punishments for refusing to become an occupier.

‘We urge you to cast aside this slave paradigm and move to the side of good.’

They are urged to ‘lay down your arms and make a decision – no longer participate in this war and sit out the hostilities in Ukrainian captivity in humane conditions, under the supervision of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ – or to join Russian patriots ‘who are waging a war of liberation against the Putin regime’.

A video showed Russian district administration officials in border town Shebekino burning documents amid fears the settlement will be grabbed by anti-Putin partisans backed by Ukraine.

Russians were seen queuing for petrol to escape their own region amid real signs it could be under the control of Putin foes and Ukrainians.

A female student told of ‘fear and panic’ in her blitzed Russian border town Shebekino, highlighting how Putin’s war has left residents exposed to acute danger.

The frightened and desperate unnamed 18-year-old said in a video: ‘My family has no money and no way to travel outside the town.

‘I’ve been caught in the shelling more than once.

‘I’ve seen people running out of their houses, literally in their underwear to shelters, basements, or [they] just fell on the ground and hid.

‘I’ve seen mothers covering their children.

‘I saw fear and panic in people’s eyes.

‘It scares me to think that children as young as seven know what…Grad shells are.

‘This is literally destroying our children’s psyche.’

The nerves of residents are ‘shot’, she said, accusing the Russian authorities of failing to provide safety for citizens.

The technical college student pleaded: ‘I want to live like other cities in Russia.

‘Shebekino is part of Russia…

‘We are asking for help.’

The student added: ‘We do not know who will protect us, who will help us.

‘Why do we have to leave the city by ourselves?

‘Why do we have to leave the land where we were born?’

Russia ‘must cut all British power and internet cables if Ukraine uses UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles’, State TV pundit demands

• The deployment of the UK’s weapons to Kyiv is said to have infuriated Moscow
• The GPS-guided missiles have a range long enough to strike targets in Crimea

By Will Stewart and Christian Oliver

Published: 07:02 EDT, 12 May 2023 | Updated: 07:05 EDT, 12 May 2023