Live Updates: Ukraine’s Strikes in Black Sea Point to New Firepower & More News

Live Updates: Ukraine’s Strikes in Black Sea Point to New Firepower – The New York Times.

Ukraine’s military said it was attacking Russian infrastructure on Snake Island, south of Odesa. Recent strikes offshore suggest that Ukrainian forces are beginning to employ more powerful Western weapons, analysts say.

KYIV, Ukraine — As Ukrainian forces launched a renewed assault on Snake Island in the Black Sea, recent strikes suggested that Ukrainian forces were using powerful Western anti-ship weapons in an effort to to undermine Russian naval domination.

The Ukrainian military’s southern command said late on Tuesday that it was using “various forces and methods of destruction” to attack Russian infrastructure on Snake Island, a speck of land south of Odesa that is critical to efforts to control the Black Sea. On Wednesday morning, the military said it had destroyed a Russian air defense system, radar installation and vehicles on the island.

But the Russian Ministry of Defense said that it had thwarted the attack, which it said had featured 15 drones and long-range missiles, and was intended to land Ukrainian soldiers on the island.

The Russians said that “after being convinced that the attempt to seize the island had failed,” the Ukrainians had used long-range anti-ship missiles and drones to attack Russian gas infrastructure facilities in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.

The details of the battle offered by both sides could not immediately be verified. But Ukrainian officials defended the targeting of Russian offshore drilling infrastructure, saying that Moscow was converting its drilling platforms to military installations by installing high-tech surveillance and communications systems on the rigs.