Ukraine strikes Novorossiysk naval base, warns of fresh Russian mobilisation

Kyiv,UPDATED: Aug 12, 2026 20:20 IST

Ukraine said its anti-ship missiles and drones struck a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a "unique" overnight operation. Russia said its air defences shot down more than 500 Ukrainian drones, but officials in the Krasnodar region reported deaths, injuries and damage to homes, industrial sites and grain terminals.

The latest exchange came as Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence believed President Vladimir Putin was planning "an additional rapid mobilization of several hundred thousand Russians by the end of the year". Moscow has shown no public sign of a fresh mobilisation, and Russian officials accused Kyiv of spreading rumours to unsettle the Russian public.

Kyiv has repeatedly used drones developed since Moscow's full-scale invasion to target Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and oil tankers. Ukrainian officials say the country's air and sea drones have helped restrict the movement of Russia's once-dominant Black Sea fleet, which they describe as one of Ukraine's biggest achievements in the war. At the same time, Ukrainian officials believe Putin intends to continue the war despite slow and costly gains on the battlefield and US diplomatic efforts to find a settlement.

Zelenskyy also said recent intelligence reports showed Russia was expanding production of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones, both of which are difficult for Ukrainian air defences to counter. Ukraine, he said, is also trying to increase its own weapons production through agreements with partner countries.

There has been no public indication from Putin or other senior Russian officials of a major new call-up for the war. Russian lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov dismissed reports of an autumn mobilisation, saying, "It is the enemy deliberately spreading rumors about mobilization in order to destabilize the situation inside Russia." After the widely unpopular partial mobilisation of about 300,000 men four years ago, Russia has relied on volunteers drawn by relatively high pay. However, the decree Putin signed in September 2022 remains open-ended, allowing the authorities to resume mobilisation if required.

Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian military had "carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk - the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea" and that the attack hit air defences, piers and other port infrastructure. Russia had moved most of its naval ships to Novorossiysk after earlier Ukrainian strikes on its main Black Sea base at Sevastopol in Crimea.

Krasnodar region Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik, as well as the Temryuk district, overnight. He said three people, including an 8-year-old child, were killed and 24 others were wounded. Dozens of residential buildings were damaged, and debris from downed drones fell on the grounds of four industrial plants. Russian business daily Vedomosti reported that two of Novorossiysk's three grain terminals were damaged, with one of them stopping operations.

Novorossiysk is also home to the Grushovaya oil terminal, one of the largest international hubs for petroleum products in southern Russia, though there were no reports that it had been hit. In February, the US State Department voiced displeasure over Ukrainian attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they affected US oil interests in Kazakhstan. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium runs a pipeline from northwestern Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk and carries much of the crude exported from three major Kazakh fields in which Chevron and ExxonMobil have stakes.

As European countries have boarded and detained sanctioned Russian oil tankers at sea, putting pressure on Moscow's trade, Putin on Wednesday threatened retaliation. Speaking during a visit to a Russian warship involved in a naval exercise in the Pacific, he said Western countries were violating international maritime law by seizing ships they say are part of Moscow's "shadow fleet" of sanctions-dodging merchant vessels. "It's nothing but piracy and robbery," Putin said. "If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind."

In Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, Sevastopol's Russian-installed head Mikhail Razvozhayev said air defences downed 115 Ukrainian drones overnight and that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged. Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 138 long-range drones and an unspecified number of missiles during the night, with damage recorded at 16 locations. In the Kherson region, a large-scale Russian drone attack killed two people and wounded two others, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said, while authorities in Zaporizhzhia said the strikes destroyed a shopping mall.

The latest attacks underlined the widening pressure around the Black Sea, with Ukraine targeting Russian naval infrastructure and Russia continuing drone and missile strikes across Ukrainian regions, even as Kyiv warned of a possible further Russian mobilisation.

With PTI Inputs

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