IP - Ukrainian forces have fired a barrage of missiles at the heavily protected command headquarter of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol

Iran PressEurope: Ukraine armed forces posted a statement Friday saying that around "12:00, the Ukrainian defense forces successfully struck the command headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in temporarily-occupied Sevastopol," located on the southwest tip of Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Kremlin-installed governor of Crimea, confirmed on social media that a missile struck the Black Sea Fleet headquarters. He said firefighters were trying to extinguish a fire in the building and that the shock wave from the blast "broke glass in 10 residential buildings in the city centre."

A video posted to social media on Friday, verified by Russian TACC showed smoke rising from the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet.

The fleet and its headquarters are obvious high-profile targets for Ukraine, which has pledged to oust the Russian occupiers from all of its territory - including Crimea and areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that have been under Russia's control for nearly a decade.

Ukraine's long-range offensive capabilities appear set to increase in the near future. The Biden administration has agreed to provide some long-range cluster missiles.

The cluster-armed ATACMS, with a range of between 70km to 300km, depending on the version chosen, could allow Ukraine to strike command posts, ammunition stores, and logistics routes far behind Russian front lines.

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