“The Ukrainian Armed Forces, together with the Defence Ministry’s intelligence unit, destroyed the large landing ship Tsezar Kunikov. It was in Ukrainian territorial waters near Alupka at the time of the hit,” Ukraine’s military said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Ukrainska Pravda media outlet earlier Wednesday reported that sea drones hit and damaged a large Russian landing ship off occupied Crimea.
The news outlet published several videos showing a column of smoke off the southern coast of Crimea, as well as helicopters flying over the sea.
Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said the targeted ship was Tsezar Kunikov, which took part in Russian military operations in Georgia in 2008.
In December, Ukrainian cruise missiles struck a large Russian landing warship in Crimea, killing at least one person.
Russian strikes kill three in Ukraine’s Donetsk
The news came after Russian bombing raids killed three people including a child late Tuesday near Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk, local authorities said.
The strikes hit nine apartment blocks and a hospital in Selydove, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of the front line, the local council said on Telegram.
Twelve people were also injured in the bombing, including four children, it added.
According to the governor of Donetsk region, Vadym Filachkine, the first strike took place at around 11:30pm (21:30 GMT) and the second at around 1am (23:00 GMT).
About 100 patients were evacuated from the damaged hospital to the nearby towns of Pokrovsk and Myrnograd, he added on Telegram.
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No details were available about the type of strikes that were carried out.
Selydove, which had a population of around 21,000 before the war, is located on the outskirts of the large city of Donetsk, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014.
Two Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight by Russian air defence over the Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported citing the defence ministry.