A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has captured the media spotlight amid fevered speculation about a budding relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang.
But only hours before the two leaders met in Russia’s Far East, the port city of Sevastopol in Crimea came under cruise missile attack, according to Russian authorities.
In the early hours of Sept. 13, Mikhail Razvozhayev, Sevastopol’s Moscow-appointed governor, claimed a Ukrainian missile attack on the port city had left two dozen injured.
Speaking on Telegram, Mr. Razvozhayev said a “non-civilian facility” had been set ablaze as a result of the attack.
Home to Russia’s formidable Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol is a major port city on the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow effectively annexed in 2014.
Kyiv, with the support of its Western backers, has vowed to recover Crimea—and other territories appropriated by Russia—by force of arms.
In a statement, Russia’s defense ministry claimed that Ukraine had targeted a Sevastopol shipyard in an overnight missile attack.
“Ukrainian forces delivered a strike with ten cruise missiles on the Ordzhonikidze Shipyard, while three [Ukrainian] unmanned motorboats targeted vessels of the Black Sea Fleet,” the statement reads.
According to the defense ministry, seven of the missiles were intercepted by air defenses, while the seaborne drones were destroyed by Russian naval forces.
But it went on to acknowledge that at least two Russian vessels had been damaged—it didn’t say to what extent—as a result of the attack.
Sevastopol’s Ordzhonikidze Shipyard reportedly builds and maintains ships and submarines affiliated with Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv, which seldom—if ever—claims responsibility for attacks carried out inside Russia or in Russian-controlled territory.
Last week, Kyiv reported that a Russian missile strike on a crowded market in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kostiantynivka had killed 17 and left dozens injured.
Moscow denied responsibility for the strike, claiming the missile had originated from Ukrainian territory.
The Epoch Times couldn’t independently verify either side’s claims regarding the missile attack, which coincided with a visit to Kyiv by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Counternarratives
Kyiv, meanwhile, continues to report battlefield successes within the scope of an ongoing counteroffensive, now in its fourth month.Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv’s forces were still making headway on both the southern and eastern fronts.
“In the past seven days, we have advanced in the [southern] Tavria sector,” Mr. Zelenskyy asserted in a Sept. 10 video address.
“There is also movement in the [eastern] Bakhmut sector,” he added, claiming that Russian attacks near the northeastern city of Kupiansk were being repelled.
Officials in Kyiv also report successes near Robotyne, a village in the southern Zaporizhzhia region that Ukraine claims to have captured last month.
Kyiv ultimately hopes to push its counteroffensive southward to the Russian-held city of Melitopol, thereby severing Russia’s land bridge to Crimea.
Ukrainian officials have bristled at recent suggestions by Western officials that the counteroffensive is moving “too slowly” and misallocating men and equipment.
In a rare outburst, Ukraine’s foreign minister recently told Western critics to “shut up ... and try to liberate [Russian-held territory] by themselves.”
Moscow, meanwhile, has stated explicitly that Kyiv’s counteroffensive had failed to meet its objectives.
According to Russian officials, including the defense minister, Ukraine has lost tens of thousands of men in return for negligible territorial gains.
On Sept. 4, Mr. Putin claimed Kyiv’s counteroffensive “isn’t merely stalling—it’s a failure.”
The dismissal earlier this month of Oleksii Reznikov as Ukraine’s defense minister has further fueled speculation that the counteroffensive is winding down.
Mr. Reznikov has since been replaced by Rustem Umerov, the former head of Ukraine’s main privatization agency.
West ‘Needs Off-Ramp’
Even voices in the Western press have begun expressing concern about the course of the conflict.On Sept. 7, USA Today cited Steven Myers, a former State Department advisory panel member, as saying that Ukraine lacked an “effective counter-strategy.” He described Kyiv’s repeated attempts to penetrate Russia’s main lines of defense as “pinpricks.”
Mr. Myers went on to warn that Kyiv’s cash-strapped European allies were quickly succumbing to what has been termed “Ukraine fatigue.”
“The Europeans are not going to shoulder more economic burden,” he was quoted as saying. “They need an off-ramp.”
Mr. Blinken, meanwhile, continues to voice confidence in the “ultimate success” of Kyiv’s counteroffensive.
But in a recent interview with ABC News, Washington’s top diplomat appeared to hint at the possibility—in theory at least—of eventual negotiation with Moscow.
“Where exactly this settles, where lines are drawn, that is going to be up to the Ukrainians,” he said.
But if Moscow were ready to hold talks, he added, “I think the Ukrainians will be the first to engage—and we’ll be right behind them.”
“Everyone wants this war to end,” Mr. Blinken said. “But it has to end on just and durable terms that reflect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
