This chilling footage reportedly shows a Russian Navy ship firing a volley of missiles at Ukrainian positions.
Newsflash obtained the footage from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) this morning (Wednesday, 23rd March), with the MoD only stating that the footage "shows the launch of high-precision Kalibr missiles on the military assets of Ukraine".
The footage, which appears to have been shot aboard the vessel itself, shows the missiles, reportedly Kalibr missiles, being fired after naval personnel can be heard communicating with one another.
The footage shows a total of eight missiles being fired before the camera cuts to them flying through the sky, presumably towards Ukraine.
The Russian-made Kalibr guided-missile system was originally developed in the 1980s and based on a modular design allowing them to be employed from various different launch platforms, including naval vessels. They are reportedly able to very quickly pivot 90 degrees so as to travel parallel to the ground after being fired.
The missiles were reportedly fired near the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, which is internationally recognised as belonging to Ukraine but which was annexed by Russia in February 2014.
Various unverified videos posted on social media on Monday appear to confirm the number of missiles launched and the location from which they were fired, with the Russian MoD then releasing this chilling footage today.
It is currently unclear what the intended target for the missiles was, with the Russian Ministry of Defence only claiming that they were aimed at Ukrainian military assets.
However, a mounting body of evidence shows that Russia has changed strategy and is now targeting civilian infrastructure in an apparent bid to break Ukrainian morale after the Kremlin's planned invasion, originally believed to have been a blitzkrieg-style attack, failed and became bogged down when met with staunch resistance.
Analysts around the world are reporting that over 30 Russian vessels appear to be currently stationed in the Black Sea, to the south of Ukraine, having significantly increased their presence there ahead of and during the early stages of the invasion, which began on Thursday, 24 February.
It is currently believed that some vessels were moved from the Arctic and Baltic to the Black Sea shortly before Russian land forces crossed the border into sovereign Ukrainian territory in a move that has been condemned the world over and has recently been labelled illegal, with US President Joe Biden also recently calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal".
It is also been widely reported that it is believed that the Russians are preparing a major amphibious attack on the strategically vital Ukrainian port city of Odessa, through which large quantities of supplies and equipment transit into the country.
The UN's International Court of Justice has ruled Russia's invasion of Ukraine illegal and has ordered Putin to remove his troops immediately. Former British Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Gordon Brown have called for the creation of a Nuremberg-style international tribunal to investigate Putin.
The proposal has been co-signed by 140 intellectuals and academics, as well as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Benjamin Ferencz, who is 102 years old and who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg.
