The Ukrainian military says that a missile attack on Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters in the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula on September 22 targeted "a meeting of the Russian Navy's leadership" and resulted in high casualties, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stopped in Poland on his way back home after his major diplomatic push in the West.
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"The details of the attack will be revealed as soon as possible and the result is dozens of dead and wounded occupants, including senior fleet commanders," the Ukrainian military said on September 23.
In comments to Voice Of America, Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov claimed the attack, in which at least one cruise missile struck the Black Sea Fleet's headquarters, killed "at least nine people" and that 16 were injured, including high-ranking officers.
"Among the wounded is the commander of the group, Colonel-General [Oleksandr] Romanchuk, in very serious condition. The Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General [Oleg] Tsekov, is unconscious. The number of casual military servicemen who are not employees of the headquarters is still being determined," Budanov was quoted as saying in VOA's September 23 report.
Romanchuk commands frontline forces defending Russian-occupied parts of southeastern Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region and was promoted to the rank of colonel-general in 2023, according to VOA. Tsekov was identified as the commander of coastal forces of the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet.
RFE/RL was not able to verify Budanov's or the Ukrainian military's casualty claims.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram on September 22 that five cruise missiles involved in that day's attack had been shot down. The ministry claimed that one Russian soldier was missing, after having earlier reported the death of one soldier.
Moscow has not issued updated information regarding casualties or commented on the Ukrainian military's claims that a meeting of Russian naval commanders was targeted.
RFE/RL's Crimea.Realities, a regional outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, reported early on September 23 that a powerful explosion was heard in Sevastopol, prompting air-raid warnings.
On the morning of September 23, Russian authorities in Crimea confirmed that Sevastopol had again come under attack.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of the Ukrainian peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014, said that preliminary information indicated that Russian air defense forces had shot down a missile and that debris had fallen along the shore of Sevastopol Bay.
In a follow-up Telegram post, Razvozhayev declared that the "missile danger is clear."
On September 22, following the attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, Razvozhayev had denied reports by multiple Telegram channels that thermal power plants near Sevastopol had been struck in a Ukrainian missile attack.
Razvozhayev alleged that Ukrainian media were "trying to sow panic among citizens" by reporting the attacks.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted naval facilities in Crimea as its counteroffensive in the east and south of the country grinds on.
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Taking Ground 'Meter By Meter': Ukrainian Counteroffensive Liberates Village Bordering Donetsk Airport
As Kyiv continues to defend its military strategy amid Western criticism, a commander of Ukraine's Tavria force fighting in the Zaporizhzhya region told CNN on September 22 that Ukraine had made a breakthrough near the rural settlement of Verbove.
“On the left flank [near Verbove] we have a breakthrough and we continue to advance further,” Oleksandr Tarnavsky said.
"Not as fast as it was expected, not like in the movies about the Second World War,” he said, but “the main thing is not to lose this initiative [that we have]."
Verbove is part of the Surovikin Lines -- triple-layered defenses named for the Russian general who ordered their construction last year to thwart any Ukrainian effort to breach and try to outmaneuver Russian forces along a 1,200-kilometer front line.
On September 23, the Ukrainian military said Russia had launched 15 Iranian-made Shahed drones against Ukraine's frontline forces in the Zaporizhzhya region and in the neighboring Dnitropetrovsk region to the north.
In the southeastern Kherson region, officials said on September 23 that at least one person had died and three were injured due to Russian shelling, which hit residential, medical, and educational buildings over the previous day.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy stopped in Poland on his way back to Ukraine on September 23 amid a simmering feud with Warsaw, which has been a major diplomatic ally in the war with Russia, taking in refugees and providing arms to Kyiv.
Tensions have risen between the two nations after Kyiv sharply criticized Warsaw when it extended its ban on Ukrainian grain products to protect Polish farmers from falling prices.
At the UN General Assembly in New York, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that "I want to tell President Zelenskiy that he must never insult Poles again, as he did the other day during his appearance at the United Nations."
SEE ALSO: Russian Foreign Minister Says Ukraine Peace Plan, UN Bid To Revive Grain Deal 'Not Realistic'Zelenskiy attempted to ease tensions when he made a stopover in Poland after his trip to the United States and Canada.
"I believe that all the challenges on our common path are nothing compared to the strength that exists between our peoples," Zelenskiy said in a video posted on his Telegram channel.
Zelenskiy handed out awards to a journalist who helped transport wounded children to Polish hospitals and to a man who had assembled a medical team to help wounded soldiers near the front line, according to Reuters.
He did not appear to meet with Polish officials.