The Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters.
Sergei Malgavko / TASS
The headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in annexed Crimea was targeted by a missile strike on Friday, according to state media and Kremlin-installed officials, killing at least one person.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said one soldier was killed by the strike in Sevastopol, where the Black Sea Fleet is based, the state-run TASS news agency reported.
Missile debris fell near a theater 200 meters from the Russian Navy’s headquarters, the Kremlin-installed head of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhayev said.
An hour after Razvozhayev’s statement, Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov said air defense systems shot down multiple cruise missiles over the annexed peninsula.
Footage shared by anonymously run channels on the Telegram messaging app showed charred columns and smoke coming out of a building identified as the Russian Navy's headquarters.
Razvozhayev said emergency crews were fighting to put out the fire that broke out at the headquarters, but added that no civilian infrastructure in the area had been damaged.
“People who were outside at the moment of the strike were also unharmed,” he wrote on Telegram.
The attacks come a week after Ukraine said it damaged Russian warships and destroyed an air defense system in a series of strikes on Crimea.
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