Russia's Navy Day celebrations in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol have been canceled following a drone attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, Sevastopol's Kremlin-installed governor, said on July 31 that six of the headquarters' employees had been injured in the incident, and wrote on Telegram that festivities scheduled for the Russian holiday had been "canceled for security reasons." No fatalities were reported.
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, citing Crimean and Russian media, reported that roads leading up to the headquarters building had been blocked and the center of Sevastopol closed off.
The Russian Federal Security Service has reportedly launched an investigation. Razvozhayev wrote in his Telegram post that he suspected the drone was launched by Ukraine, and the Black Sea Fleet reported that the attack was carried out by a makeshift drone fitted with a low-powered explosive device.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for Ukraine's Odesa military region, denied that Kyiv was behind the incident, dismissing the suggestion as "sheer provocation."
"Our liberation of Crimea from the occupiers will be carried out in another way and much more effectively," he wrote on Telegram on July 31.
Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency later quoted Olga Kovitidi, a Russian lawmaker from Crimea, as saying the drone was launched from Sevastopol itself and that the incident was being treated as a “terrorist act.”
Sevastopol, Crimea's largest city, is a major port in the peninsula's southwest that is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Along with the rest of the peninsula, which was forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014, Sevastopol is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.
In Russia, the country's Navy Day was celebrated with a large naval parade on St. Petersburg's Neva River.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who attended the event, used the opportunity to announce that Moscow had approved a new Maritime Doctrine that designates Russia's coastal boundaries and areas of Russian national interest, including in the Arctic, Black, and Bering seas, and the Baltic and Kuril straits.
"We will firmly provide for their protection by all means," Putin said.
He also said that the Russian Navy would receive Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missiles within the next few months.
The frigate Admiral Gorshkov, Putin said, would be the first to be fitted with the newly introduced weapon, for which he claimed "no obstacles exist."
Putin added that the area of operations for the Admiral Gorshkov would be determined based on what he called Russian security interests.