Videos Show Russia Is Lying About Secret Attack on its Ship

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Friday that its ships had “repelled an attack” by Ukrainian unmanned boats threatening a naval base, according to state media, before Kyiv released a video apparently showing the attack succeeding.

“Tonight, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using two crewless boats, attempted to attack the Novorossiysk naval base,” a source in the ministry told the TASS news agency, referring to the Black Sea installation in southern Russia. “In the course of repelling the attack, crewless boats were visually detected and destroyed by fire from the standard weapons of Russian ships guarding the outer raid of the naval base.”

Hours later, Kyiv came out with a different version of events. A Ukrainian official told Interfax that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ukrainian Navy had conducted the operation and that a large Russian landing ship named Olenegorsky Gornyak had been damaged. The source said that as a result of the attack, the ship “suffered a serious hole and is currently unable to perform its combat tasks.” “All Russian statements about the ‘attack being repulsed’ are fake,” they added.