Ukraine destroys Russian ferry and pummels airfields — but struggles in Donetsk

The Ukrainian Navy on Friday confirmed it attacked a Russian ferry in the port of Kavkaz on Thursday evening which caused the transporter vessel to explode and sink.
Ukrainian forces have been hitting Russian targets around occupied Crimea and striking air bases inside Russia as Kyiv attempts to tilt the battlefield in its favor even as Kremlin forces grind forward in Donetsk.
“The Navy destroyed this target,” Ukrainian navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told Ukrainian radio about the vessel. “This ferry is one of the important chains of Russian military logistics to provide the occupying forces, first of all, with fuel and lubricants, but, in addition, it also transported, of course, weapons. Therefore, this is a completely legitimate goal.”
Pletenchuk did not specify what weapons Ukraine used, but most likely it was destroyed by Ukraine’s coastal missile system Neptun, Russian media reported.
Ukraine’s bombing campaign in Russia has also intensified in recent days.
Besides sinking the ferry, Ukrainian drones attacked the Russian Proletarsk oil base in Rostov region early on Friday — again.
Fires in the area have been blazing for six consecutive days, following an initial drone strike on Aug. 18. According to Russian state news agency TASS, on Thursday emergency services extinguished six out of 20 burning diesel fuel tanks.
In Russia’s nearby Volgograd region, Ukraine’s SBU security service and special operation forces carried out raids against warehouses containing anti-tank weapons and fuel at the Marinovka airfield Thursday. Ukraine says Russia uses the airfield for its bombing campaign against Ukrainian border regions.
“Each attack reduces the superiority of the Russians in the air and significantly limits their aviation capabilities,” an SBU official told POLITICO after being granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive military operation.
Russian residents reported on Telegram that after the attack by the Ukrainian drones, the military airfield looked like footage from an apocalypse movie. “It’s a serious tragedy, folks. This is serious stuff. It’s all fucking on fire. And it’s fucking smoke. It’s all fucking exploding. That’s it,” said one Russian while filming the scene.
It’s not all good news for Ukraine, though.
Russian forces have been pressing forward in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where ammo-depleted Ukrainian troops are struggling to hold the line near Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Myrnohrad — three main directions where Russia has directed its major efforts.
According to Ukraine’s general staff, Russia is concentrating its attack on Pokrovsk, where the local government urged citizens to evacuate.
Russian forces on Tuesday claimed the capture of New York, a suburb of Toretsk in the Donetsk region, and announced the capture of Mezhove, a village between Avdiivka and Pokrovsk, on Thursday. Ukraine has not yet responded to those Russian claims.