The Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have thwarted the overnight attack on the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, but the fate of one of its warships was in doubt after videos shared on social media and a Ukrainian intelligence source suggested it had suffered damage.

The incident is the latest apparent effort by Ukraine to strike strategic targets inside Russia using drones, a growing campaign that comes as its counteroffensive struggles to make a breakthrough on the battlefield.

In a statement released early Friday, the Defense Ministry said the naval base in southern Russia was attacked by two unmanned sea drones overnight.

Videos circulating online showed a ship resembling the Olenegorsky Gornyak warship listing and being towed back to the port that the Russian government said had been attacked.

Using satellite imagery and marine ship tracking data, NBC News was able to confirm that the video was filmed in Novorossiysk and showed the same class of warship as the Olenegorsky Gornyak.

As Ukraine finds itself in the middle of a crucial counteroffensive to reclaim occupied land, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned last week that the war was gradually “returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases” in what he called an “inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.”

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