Russian warship spotted in Black Sea after Ukrainian maritime drone attack

Kyiv (CNN) — Ukraine said it launched a drone strike at sea against a Russian naval base as images circulated on social media show a damaged Russian warship listing heavily in the Black Sea early this morning.

Images and videos on social media show the ship being towed near the Novorossiysk naval base, despite earlier claims by the Russian Defense Ministry that the attack was repelled.

A Ukrainian source told CNN that a naval drone carrying 450 kilograms of TNT attacked the ship and claimed that there were about 100 Russian troops on board.

“A large naval ship, the Olenogorsk Miner, was attacked,” a source told CNN. “As a result of the attack, the Russian ship was seriously damaged and cannot perform its duties.”

The ship was identified by a Ukrainian source and Russian military bloggers as the Olenogorsk Miner, a Russian landing craft.

Video was made available to CNN of an unmanned maritime drone approaching the ship, which appears to be the same as the one later seen in the port of Novorossiysk.

A 36-second video taken from a marine drone shows it approaching the ship at night. The video ends as soon as the drone reaches its target.

Earlier, Russia claimed to have intercepted two Ukrainian naval drones, while the Defense Ministry said the ships were “visually detected and destroyed by standard artillery fire from Russian ships guarding the outer roadstead of the naval base.”

News in development.