Ukraine’s navy has sunk a ferry used to transport fuel and weapons to Russian forces in Crimea.

The boat, named Conro Trader, was downed at the Kavkaz port, one of Russia’s largest passenger ports, in the Kerch Strait on Thursday.

Local Russian authorities reported 30 fuel tankers being aboard at the time of the attack.

While Ukraine’s military has long had its sights on the Kerch Bridge, which connects Russia to Crimea, the structure accounts for less than a quarter of transit cargo with the rest crossing by ferry, according to local media.

The attack has been confirmed by both sides, with the Krasnodar region’s governor saying 17 crew members were rescued, with two still missing.

“This ferry is one of the most important chains of Russian military logistics for supplying the occupation forces, primarily with fuel and lubricants, but it also transported weapons. Therefore, this is a legitimate target,” Dmytro Pletenchu, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s navy, told Radio Svaboda.

The attack comes more than two weeks into Ukraine’s surprise offensive in western Russia’s Kursk region, and amid a wave of missile and drone attacks on strategic targets.

On Wednesday, Ukraine launched one of its largest attacks yet on Moscow as Russia said 11 drones were shot down over the region, and 45 across the country.

In a separate incident on the same day, a drone was also downed in Murmansk, over 1,000 miles from Ukraine.

On Aug 6, Ukraine launched a surprise offensive into Russia’s southern Kursk region, seizing control of 93 settlements and over 400 square miles of territory.

The advance has since slowed, with only marginal gains around territory Ukraine already controls, yet the operation has been seen as a huge morale boost to its tired and overstretched forces.

Russia, meanwhile, is advancing on Pokrovsk, a logistical stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region, and has seized at least three settlements in recent days.

Over a third of the clashes between the two warring nations are currently taking place on the Pokrovsk front.

Ukraine is working to boost its forces in the east with more men and weapons, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said this week.