CNN —
Russia has moved rapidly to cripple the United Nations-brokered Black Sea grain corridor in the wake of the drone attack early Saturday on the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
Ukraine has not confirmed that its forces attacked the port, and the extent of the damage to Russian naval vessels is not yet clear.
But it is very much in the Ukrainians’ interest to damage Russia’s Black Sea fleet and its home port. Ships and submarines routinely set out from Sevastopol with sea-launched cruise missiles to attack Ukraine’s infrastructure and especially its power grid. Those attacks resumed Monday, though at least some were air-launched.
Some reports from unofficial Ukrainian and Russian sources said the Admiral Makarov, a Russian frigate and one of several surface ships that carry Kalibr cruise missiles, had sustained significant damage Saturday, but there has been no independent confirmation of the claim.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that “social media footage documented an unknown number of unmanned surface vehicles striking at least one Grigorovich-class frigate.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said there had been only minor damage to a minesweeper. But the fact that the maritime drones reached the port at all angered some Russian military bloggers, who asked why netting at the entrance to the port had not been closed.
The ISW noted that a Ukrainian decision to target a “Kalibr-capable frigate at this time makes sense given the intensified...
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