INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ukraine on Wednesday said it had struck a Russian naval transport vessel docked in the Azov Sea near the besieged port city of Mariupol, a
to big cranes in amateur footage of what the Ukraine navy said was the strike on the ship.There was no immediate response to the claim from
Russia's defence ministry and AFP could not independently confirm the strikes.Russia's state-run TASS new agency earlier this week had
described the arrival of landing craft as "an epic event" that "opens up opportunities for the Black Sea in terms of logistics," citing the
Russian defence ministry-linked television channel, Zvezda.TASS reported that the vessel was capable of carrying up to 1,500 tonnes of
cargo.Berdyansk is situated around 80 kilometres (60 miles) to the west of the strategic city of Mariupol, which has been encircled and
heavily damaged by Russian forces.Thousands of civilians have escaped Mariupol through evacuation corridors but some 100,000 people remain
lacking water and electricity.Kyiv says more than 2,500 people have been killed in the city since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched
his invasion of Ukraine one month ago.Russian forces have advanced further in southern Ukraine but only control Kherson, a town of
approximately 200,000 people.
