Huge explosion as Ukraine strikes Russian warship _ BBC News

evening , a Ukrainian missile strike has damaged a Russian warship in the Black Sea .

President Zelensky has said he is grateful to the country's air force for the attack and that Russian forces , in his words , won't have a single peaceful place in the country .

Ukraine claims to have destroyed the Novocherkassk landing vessel in an air strike on the port of Theodosia , which is 250 kilometres from the front line in Russian occupied Crimea .

Local officials say at least one person was killed .

Our Ukraine correspondent , James Waterhouse , has sent this report .

For Ukraine , this was a high value target .

She got the Novocherkassk landing ship struck by a guided missile .

The blast was colossal .

Moscow claims it was only damaged .

Kiev says destroyed It's going to need more than a lick of paint .

Regardless , Crimea has been in Russia's grasp since 2014 , but sites like this have become more common .

With Ukraine striking deeper into the peninsula , the Novocherkassk would have almost certainly been loaded with either soldiers , hardware or both .

Its loss will hamper Russia's ability to supply troops further north , as well as further weaken its naval dominance in the Black Sea what attacks like these have yet to do is apply enough pressure on Moscow for it to surrender Ukrainian territory it has taken .

But for Ukraine , for President Zelensky , it is a welcome announcement against the backdrop of waning Western support .

It's already affecting Ukraine's front line operations , and that's helping Russia with the capture of Marinka in the east .

Moscow calls the devouring of this town liberation .

The main focus was to disrupt the Ukrainian counter offensive , which was announced by Ukraine and its allies .

This task has been successfully completed .

Ukraine has only been able to liberate a few kilometres of its territory and the head of its armed forces gave a sobering forecast for next year .

We are doing everything we can .

Unfortunately , the enemy is not far behind us .

You can see what is happening .

Especially recently , we are having powerful confrontations using various technologies .

In felia , fragments of the ship were scattered for hundreds of metres .

Strikes like this have chipped away at Russia's control , but their impact isn't always realised immediately .

The problem for Ukraine is time is not its friend James Waterhouse BBC News Kiev