"Today, the Ukrainian Navy hit the Russian rescue ship 'Kommuna' (...) The nature of the damage is being verified", the Ministry of Defense said.

According to the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, the ship, identified as the oldest military vessel in the world - crossing two world wars - caught fire in the port of Sevastopol, in the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, as a result of an operation by the Ukrainian Navy carried out today.

"This event occurred with the direct involvement of the Ukrainian Navy. The type of damage caused to the ship is being established, but the first reports indicate that the ship is not fit to carry out missions", described Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Kyiv Navy, quoted by the newspaper.

Earlier, Russia said it had repelled a Ukrainian attack on a Black Sea Fleet ship in the port of Sevastopol, without identifying the vessel.

The attack, allegedly carried out with anti-ship missiles, occurred this morning in the northern part of the Russian fleet base, said Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev.

"A small fire broke out and was quickly extinguished", Razvozhaev added on social media, according to the Spanish agency EFE.

The spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy explained that the vessel was not a warship, but, despite its age, it was serving the Russian Black Sea Fleet and in working condition.

Ukrainska Pravda reports that Russia used the "Kommuna" to inspect the site where the "Moskva" -- the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet -- sank after a Ukrainian attack in April 2022.

According to open Russian sources, the "Kommuna", launched in 1915, is not only the oldest ship in the Russian Navy but also the oldest ship in military service in the world, being the only one of its class in the Black Sea Fleet.

With missiles and naval and aerial 'drones' of its own production, Ukraine has managed to destroy, since the beginning of the war in February 2022, a third of the ships of the Black Sea Fleet, which had caused extensive damage in the first months of the Russian invasion.

After the "Mosvka", last February, Kyiv forces destroyed the landing ship "Caesar Kunikov" and the missile corvette "Ivanovets" near the coast of the annexed Crimean peninsula, and, in early March, also sank the corvette "Sergei Kotov".

Today's attack in Sevastopol comes a month after the replacement of the head of the Russian Navy, following Russian losses in the Black Sea.

The new chief, Alexandr Moiseyev, who is visiting China, was previously commander of the Black Sea Fleet, a position he held until 2018, after which he was appointed commander of the Northern Fleet in 2019.

In recent months, Ukraine has suffered intense bombing campaigns by Moscow forces against its main cities and energy infrastructure, causing civilian casualties.

At the same time, Ukraine has carried out a series of in-depth attacks on Russian soil and in occupied territories, including Crimea, which have also caused civilian deaths.

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