Ukraine denies that it attacked the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea with a drone, qualifying Russia’s accusations as a “deliberate provocation”, writes France Presse.

Russia’s accusations regarding the “so-called Ukrainian attack on the headquarters of the Russian fleet in Sevastopol” are a “deliberate provocation,” said Serhiy Bratsyuk, spokesman for the Odesa regional administration, in a Telegram video.

• “The liberation of the occupied Ukrainian Crimea will take place in a different, much more effective way,” he added.

“This morning, Ukrainian nationalists decided to spoil the Day of the Russian Navy,” Mykhailo Razvytaev, governor of Sevastopol, a city on the annexed Crimean peninsula, which is celebrated in Russia on Sunday, wrote in Telegram.

According to the same source, six people were injured on Sunday in a drone attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.

All celebrations on the occasion of the Day of the Russian Navy are “cancelled for security reasons”, Razvitivayev announced, asking the people of Sevastopol not to leave their homes “if possible”.

Large-scale celebrations are planned across Russia for the holiday, including a naval parade in St. Petersburg (in the northwest), which will be watched by President Vladimir Putin.

This is the first time that Russian authorities have reported such an attack since the start of their offensive on Ukraine on February 24, AFP notes, Agerpres reports.