<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Ukraine says Friday's missile strike on the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea fleet in Crimea was timed to coincide with a meeting of naval officials.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a short statement, the Ukrainian military claimed the strike had caused deaths and injuries but did not provide more details.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Friday Moscow said one serviceman was missing after the attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The fleet, based in the port city of Sevastopol, is seen as the best of Russia's navy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Ukrainian military source told the BBC that Friday's attack was carried out using Storm Shadow missiles, which are supplied by Britain and France.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ukrainian military statement on Saturday asserted that it had left "dozens of dead and wounded occupiers, including the top management of the fleet".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kyiv's intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, claimed that two Russian commanders were badly injured in the missile strike.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The BBC is unable to independently verify many of the battlefield claims made by either side.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Western powers were "de facto fighting against us, using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He was speaking to journalists after delivering a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, where he denounced the West as "a real empire of lies" unable to negotiate with the rest of the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering international condemnation. Moscow had illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Sevastopol area came under renewed attack on Saturday. The city's Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said debris from a missile shot down by air defences had fallen near a pier.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He also told residents he was ordering an inspection of bomb shelters following some complaints they were hard to access or in poor condition.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We earnestly ask everyone: stop sowing panic and pleasing our enemies with this - panic is their main goal," he wrote on Telegram.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kyiv's forces have recently been launching near-daily strikes against Russian forces based in Crimea.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, Ukraine's navy claimed to have knocked out an S-400 air defence missile battery covering the peninsula, degrading Russia's ability to defend against fresh attacks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A day earlier, a large Russian landing ship and submarine were damaged in an attack which Ukraine said also made use of Storm Shadow missiles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The attacks on Crimea are strategically and symbolically important.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As well as being a platform from which to attack Ukraine, the Black Sea fleet is a major symbol of Russia's centuries-old military presence in the region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was based in Crimea under a leasing deal even before Russia's 2014 annexation of the peninsula. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>