Police earlier stopped the meeting from going ahead due to safety concerns.

The roadworks are part of a project to build a permanent roundabout at the intersection.

Enquiries into an alleged assault this afternoon said to be as hoax by police

Emergency services rushed to Tauhinu Rd in Greenhithe at 3.23pm yesterday.

Mari Gilbert did not live to witness the arrest of an architect from Long Island suspected of killing four young women whose remains were discovered in Gilgo Beach in the US more than a decade ago.

But the search for her daughter Shannan Gilbert, who went missing in May 2010, ultimately led Suffolk County police to the bodies of those women, wrapped in camouflaged burlap and discarded along a desolate beachfront parkway.

Shannan Gilbert was 23 when she vanished.

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Her remains were found in December 2011 in another beach community just down the road.

Authorities have said her death may have been accidental and not related to the other killings – a long-dormant multiple homicide case known as the "Gilgo Four."

Mari Gilbert, in the final years of her life, pressured police to take her daughter's disappearance seriously.

She fought tirelessly to ensure that Shannan and the other victims would not be forgotten.

"Mari saw Shannan as an unintended hero because it was Shannan's disappearance that ironically caused all the others to have been found and, now, to have at least one arrest," said John Ray, an attorney for the Gilbert family.

Beyond the string of murders and the long-elusive hunt for a suspected serial killer is the Hamlet-like tragedy of a troubled family whose legacy may be helping solve what police called "one of the most consequential homicide investigations in the history of Long Island."

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"Who knows what other lives have been saved because of the exposure of all this? And now the arrest of an alleged murderer," Ray said.

On July 23, 2016, tragedy again befell the family.

Mari Gilbert was 52 when she was stabbed hundreds of times with a 12 centimetre kitchen knife by another daughter, Sarra.

She was then bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher, according to a court document.

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Sarra Gilbert, who Ray said suffered both emotionally and mentally after her sister's death, was sentenced to a prison term of 25 years to life.

"Mari understood that one way of finding at least a shred of meaning in the loss of her daughter was that her disappearance led to the discovery of those four women several months later, and that without Shannan there would be no case, there would be no search for the killer," said Robert Kolker, the author of the 2013 book Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery, which closely examined the case.

"She understood that very well, and I believe she found some redemption in that idea: that Shannan's loss helped others learn the truth."

'I'm glad I'm still alive to see it'

Shannan Gilbert's disappearance on May 1, 2010, was followed by years without an arrest, or suspect, or promising leads and – as Kolker put it – "barely a peep from the police or the authorities."

That is until July 13, when police arrested Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old architectural consultant who worked in Manhattan and lived with his wife and children in Massapequa Park, across the bay from where the remains of the women were found, on the southeastern edge of Nassau County.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello. He is also suspected of killing Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Before the arrest, the Gilgo Beach case remained unsolved for over a decade after the women's bodies were found.

"Of all the family members, Mari was the one who got the most out of the police, forced them to do things they otherwise wouldn't," Kolker wrote in the new afterword of his book – which was adapted into a 2020 article in New York Magazine.

"And she didn't just make a lot of noise; the experience of fighting on behalf of her daughter Shannan transformed Mari, too."

Mari Gilbert in 2011 accused police of botching the investigation, which she described as "clownish."

For years, Gilbert and others maintained that investigators dragged their feet because the victims, like Shannan, were sex workers.

"We kept all the cases alive by keeping alive the Shannan Gilbert case," Ray said.

"There's no question of that at all. The police had entered into a dreamland of waiting it out."

A major corruption scandal within Suffolk County law enforcement did not help matters.

In 2015, Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke was arrested and accused of beating a man who allegedly broke into his vehicle in 2012 and stole a bag that contained sex toys and porn, and then conspiring to block the FBI investigation into his actions, according to court records.

Burke ultimately pleaded guilty to a civil rights violation and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

He was sentenced to 46 months in prison, the records show.

Notably, a day after Burke was arrested, the Suffolk County police deputy commissioner at the time announced the FBI would join the investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders.

Kolker said Mari Gilbert and the other family members meanwhile banded together to become "a powerful force for advocacy."

"They reminded people that there were real human beings at stake here, that this wasn't just a Hannibal Lecter movie," he said.

"But among all the family members, Mari was the one who was the most provocative personality. She was the one who when things started to get quiet would stand up and make some noise and make sure that the police responded."

The day after Heuermann's arrest as he left work near the Empire State Building, Gilbert's second eldest daughter, Sherre, expressed her support for the families of the victims on a Facebook page titled Praying for Shannan Maria Gilbert.

The "time, effort, and dedication my mom & I put into this case (wasn't) wasted… I wished, hoped & prayed for this day. I'm glad I'm still alive to see it," she wrote.

Kolker, whose book was in 2020 turned into a film for Netflix also titled Lost Girls, said: "I think Mari would have been much the same way if she were here. She would have celebrated the arrest and voiced support for the other families."

'Some things that we could have done better'

In February 2022, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison formed a multiagency task force, including state police and the FBI, to revisit the case – an effort that led to Heuermann's arrest.

Within months investigators made a "significant" discovery that led them to focus on Heuermann, according to the prosecution's bail application.

Prosecutors said police found a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche – the same type of truck a witness believed to have been driven by Costello's killer – registered to Heuermann at the time of the murders.

Investigators later recovered DNA from a pizza crust that was thrown away outside Heuermann's Manhattan office and linked it to the alleged killer of the Gilgo Four.

After the arrest, Harrison defended the police investigation.

"Since the discovery of the first victim, there has been a lot of scrutiny and criticism regarding how this investigation was handled," he said.

"I will tell you this, the investigators were never discouraged. They continued and uncovered evidence and followed leads. They never stopped working and will continue to work tirelessly until we bring justice to all the families involved."

Harrison later told CNN, "There might have been some things that we could have done better but we're here today and we're announcing that we're placing this animal under arrest."

On Friday, Suffolk County authorities announced they had identified another Gilgo Beach murder victim – known as "Fire Island Jane Doe" – as Karen Vergata, a 34-year-old escort from Manhattan who went missing on Valentine's Day in 1996.

Vergata's remains were among nearly a dozen sets of human remains found along Ocean Parkway on the South Shore of Long Island between 2010 and 2011, including Shannan Gilbert and the Gilgo Four victims.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters there are "no charges at this time" and investigators continue to work on the case. Tierney did not link Heuermann to Vergata's death.

"It's sort of seems like we're on the road to getting answers for some of these deaths," Kolker said. "But there are many, many unsolved murders still in Long Island along the shore… There's a glimmer of progress now. But along with celebrating what's happening, I think a lot of people are asking what took so long."

'She does not deserve to be forgotten'

Early on the morning of May 1, 2010, Gilbert – who lived in New Jersey – travelled with her driver from Manhattan to meet a man at his home in Oak Beach on Long Island. Gilbert appeared "irrational" at some point and the man contacted the driver, according to a Suffolk County police online summary of the Gilgo Beach homicide investigation.

She fled on foot and approached two homeowners in the area before she vanished.

The driver and the man Gilbert visited that morning were investigated and cleared of criminal involvement in her death, according to police.

An analysis by the FBI and a psychiatrist of a 911 call Gilbert made at the time, as well as the circumstances of her disappearance, found that her death was "not consistent with her being the victim of violence or of a violent offender," according to Suffolk County police.

In the frantic 911 call, Gilbert screamed, "They're trying to kill me," according to CNN affiliate WPIX-TV.

The search for her led to the discovery of the other victims – more than seven months after Gilbert's disappearance.

Gilbert's remains were found in Oak Beach a year later.

In 2016, Mari Gilbert and Ray held a news conference to announce that an independent autopsy on Shannan's remains found that her death was "consistent with homicidal strangulation" but there was insufficient information to determine a definitive cause of death.

Holding a photo of her eldest child, Mari Gilbert told reporters that day, "This is my daughter Shannan. She was not perfect. No one is perfect. But she was loved. She was cared for. She does not deserve to be forgotten."

She kept on living 'despite such terrible loss'

Over the years, Mari Gilbert's daughters often appeared alongside her at news conferences and vigils for the victims.

But Ray said daughter Sarra was never the same after Shannan went missing and her remains later discovered.

"She was driven mad quite substantially by the death of her beloved sister," he said. "She looked up to Shannan as, you know, a demigod and she was brokenhearted by what had happened and it was all simmering in that little mind all that time."

On an afternoon in July 2016, Sarra Gilbert invited her mother to her home. She stabbed Mari Gilbert 227 times, bludgeoned her with a fire extinguisher and sprayed fire extinguisher foam into her mouth, according to a 2021 ruling upholding Sarra's conviction by the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department.

Sherre Gilbert wrote on Facebook: "So as a lot of you may know, my mother passed away yesterday. She was murdered by my sister, Sarra who was battling a mental illness for 2 1/2 years. My sister Stevie and I are incredibly devastated beyond words as our mother was the backbone of the family."

Police responded to a call from one of Sarra's sisters. Outside the home, Sherre Gilbert told officers that Sarra "called her that morning and told her that she was hearing voices," the document said.

Inside, police found Mari Gilbert's body and Sarra smoking a cigarette. In body camera footage played for the jury at trial, Sarra told police in a soft voice, "I killed my mom," though she later said Gilbert was still alive.

Sarra told police that before the killing she heard voices referring to her mother as the "devil" and a "bad God" and directing her to kill Gilbert, according to the document.

"Mari loved her daughter," Ray said. "She went to her death … knowing when she was going to that house that she was in danger."

Sarra's younger sister, Stevie Smith, testified for the prosecution at trial, saying that Sarra "had a strained relationship with the victim, who had obtained custody of defendant's son following a February 2016 incident in which defendant drowned a puppy in front of the child," the document said.

The prosecution maintained that Sarra plotted the killing after her mother had Sarra arrested months earlier for killing the puppy.

The defence argued that Sarra harboured delusions fueled by years of abuse and mental illness. A forensic psychologist testified for the defence that Sarra suffered from "acute symptoms of schizophrenia at the time of the killing."

"We have no doubt that defendant suffers from a debilitating mental illness that blurs the lines of fiction and reality, and we are certainly sympathetic to the difficult life circumstances she has endured," the ruling said.

"The proof, however, reasonably supports the jury's finding that, at the time of the killing, defendant had the substantial capacity to know and appreciate both the nature and consequences of her conduct and that such conduct was wrong."

Kolker, in the 2020 afterword to his best-selling book, wrote: "Mari's life, transformed by the death of one daughter, had been ended by another."

"She was not a perfect person and she was a confrontational person," Kolker said in an interview.

"But in her final years, she became the caregiver for another sick daughter of hers. And her tragic death was awful. But everyone I talked to who knew her well said that in her final years she had grown as a person and really found a way to keep on living despite such terrible loss."

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The homes would have three bedrooms and cost up to $170,000.

Victorian Labor MP Will Fowles denied any allegation of wrongdoing just hours after stepping down from his position within the parliamentary Labor party.

It comes after state premier Daniel Andrews announced Fowles had stepped down as Ringwood MP after an alleged "serious assault".

Fowes in a statement he was "shocked and distressed" to learn that an allegation of assault had been made against him.

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"The details of the claim have not been put to me. I strenuously deny any allegation of assault," Fowles said.

"It is not true. There was no assault."

The MP said he expected his resignation to be " temporary".

"I will fully cooperate with any process or enquiries," Fowles said.

"I remain a committed Member of Parliament and of the Australian Labor Party. My focus remains on representing my local community to the best of my abilities.

"I will not be making further comment until such time as I am cleared."

In a statement issued last night, Andrews said he was advised of the "alleged incident" on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference today, Andrews refused to reveal any more details about the allegations but said the matter is being taken seriously.

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"The safety of everybody in the workplace is taken very seriously, Andrews said.

"It's no longer acceptable to me for Fowles to remain as a member of the parliamentary Labor Party.

"I sought and received his resignation. I will leave it to him to make any statements he chooses to make. That is a matter for him."

The comments come after Andrews revealed the allegations against the Ringwood MP had been referred to Victoria Police.

"My office made further inquiries over Friday and Saturday and has now received information from a government employee about an alleged serious assault by the Member for Ringwood," Andrew said in a statement.

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"I also sought and received the Member for Ringwood's resignation from the Parliamentary Labor Party.

"The complainant has been and will continue to be supported and their privacy should be respected.

"The wellbeing of staff and their right to a safe workplace is not negotiable."

Victoria Police confirmed they had received a referral from the State Government regarding an assault.

"No official complaint has been received from a victim in relation to the matter," police said.

"Police have provided contact details should a victim choose to make a report."

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They're long and skinny. They're boomerang-headed and coated in toxic mucus. And they've been hiding in plain sight in the US for a long time.

Invasive hammerhead flatworms have distinctive curved heads, striped bodies ranging in color from light yellow to dark brown, and they can secrete tetrodotoxin — a neurotoxin found in puffer fish and blue-ringed octopuses.

Some species are no more than 2.5 centimetres long, but others measure up to 38 centimetres in length.

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The worms are known across the southeastern US, and with recent hammerhead sightings in Washington, DC, New Yorkers and others in the Northeast Corridor may be wondering how long it will be before the toxic invaders inch their way farther north.

Trouble is, the worms are already right at home in New York state (and likely more of the country than we suspect) and have been around for decades, said Peter Ducey, a professor of biological sciences at the State University of New York at Cortland.

"These animals are widespread in New York," Ducey told CNN.

"They're widespread and abundant."

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Their numbers may be on the rise in the Northeast, as climate change brings warmer temperatures and increased rainfall, enabling southern populations to expand northward, "but we don't yet have enough data to tell," Ducey said.

One reason why people may be more aware of the worms right now is their prominence in the news and on social media, which tend to favour stories about "unusual or scary creatures," Ducey said, and these worms — and their potential impact on surrounding ecosystems — "are certainly unusual."

Look, but don't touch

Hammerhead worms are planarians, a type of flatworm. Five species of invasive hammerhead worms — four in the genus Bipalium and one in Diversibipalium — are established in North America, said Bruce Snyder, an associate professor of biology at Georgia College and State University.

The worms originated in Southeast Asia and are thought to have arrived in the US in 1891 in landscaping material, according to the US Department of Agriculture's National Invasive Species Information Center.

Today, most hammerhead worms (also known as broadhead planarians) are concentrated in the Southeast, where they favour warm, damp habitats.

"They're in forests quite a bit, but they're also associated with human development," Snyder told CNN.

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Because the worms tend to end up wherever soil is transported, "they're in a lot of gardens and yards and around houses," he said.

"Within those habitats, they're in leaf litter. You often find them under rocks or logs or pieces of trash."

To date, more than 3000 sightings in southeastern states of just one invasive hammerhead species — Bipalium kewense — have been shared to the citizen scientist database iNaturalist.

But the worms are also present in California and Oregon, and since 2022 there have been reports of sightings in southern and central Maine, according to the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Hammerhead tetrodotoxin, which disrupts neurons' signalling to muscles, can sicken pets if they eat the worms, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Direct contact with the worms can cause skin irritation in humans, but the effects may be more severe if toxins enter the body through a cut, Ducey warned.

"In my lab, my students and I wear gloves when we handle the worms," he said.

"We try to touch them as little as possible in general."

Hammerheads prey on earthworms, mollusks and insects, and may use their venom to subdue prey or deter predators, according to the New Jersey department.

Widely distributed

Ducey began researching the worms in the 1990s, but hammerheads arrived in New York decades earlier; he recalls seeing them while growing up, in his Long Island backyard.

The species Bipalium adventitium was first detected in the New York area in 1947 by zoologist Libbie Hyman, who reported the finding in 1954 in the journal American Museum Novitates.

She discovered a population of the worms in a garden in Westchester County, about 56 kilometres north of New York City.

Hyman also identified B. adventitium worms in California in 1943, "which showed the worm was already widely distributed across the country," Ducey said.

However, after Hyman's discovery "nobody looked for them very much," he added.

Around 25 years ago, Ducey and students in his lab went searching for the two species most widely distributed in the US — B. adventitium and B. kewense.

The scientists found the worms nearly everywhere they looked, even where hammerheads hadn't been reported before.

And once such invasive species are successfully reproducing in the wild, they're not going anywhere, Ducey said.

"The time to get them is before they even arrive at a new place. And then the time to stop them is right at the very beginning of those invasions," he said. "There are very few invasive species that once they become established can be removed completely."

Worm vs. worm

Invasive animals can disrupt ecosystems by eating native species or outcompeting them. B. adventitium preys mostly on earthworms. However, earthworms in the northeastern US are also invasive species from Europe and Asia, so it's unclear what the environmental cost of this invader-eats-invader predation might be, Snyder said.

"We also don't have great data on exactly which species of earthworms the different flatworms will eat," he added.

"So it's very challenging to try and figure out how much of an impact they're having."

Of greater concern are the dining habits of the hammerhead species B. vagum, which eats snails and slugs.

Some snail species in the southeastern US are endangered, "so that particular invading planarian might be the most damaging, even though it's not as widespread as the other two," Ducey said.

However, the extent of this predation is unknown, and more research would be required to know if B. vagum poses a threat to endangered snails, he added.

For those looking to rid their yards or gardens of hammerheads, slicing up the worms isn't recommended, as that only leads to more worms. Pennsylvania State University's College of Agricultural Sciences suggests placing the worm in a plastic bag so it doesn't crawl away and applying salt or ethanol — but very carefully.

"When handling flatworms, gloves should be worn or the hands washed after," according to a fact sheet from the college.

"The risk from prolonged exposure to chemicals in land planaria mucus is likely low but unknown, so caution should be used regardless."

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A Redcliffe restaurant owner says he's lucky to be alive, after being glassed in the back of the head on Friday night.

Two men are facing charges and are accused of going on a drunken rampage through the busy dining precinct north of Brisbane.

CCTV footage shows the two men, one with his shirt off, squaring off with restaurant staff in front of terrified families just before 8pm at Redcliffe Parade.

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"They are just yelling and screaming and I think they were upset that we were telling them to leave," staff member Crystal Balcobero told 9News.

Police say Jarrod Lane, 24, and Jayden Casella, 25, are accused of blowing a vape in the face of staff at Cactus Jack's and throwing hand sanitiser.

After being refused service there, they then targeted Papi's Mexican Kitchen.

It was out of view of the security camera where Casella is accused of smashing a glass into the back of Avan Jiminez's head.

"I just feel like I could have died, you know," he told 9News.

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The alleged attack on the 40-year-old Cactus Jack's owner was unprovoked.

"Some random people with no feelings, no heart, no soul, they come and destroy someone's life," he said.

"I have no words to describe that sort of person, How they can do that to another person."

Jiminez was at the Redcliffe Hospital until 3am Saturday before returning to work later in the day, saying he can't afford a single day off.

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"Stuff is so expensive. I have to work everyday," he told 9News.

Both the 24 and 25-year-old are facing a public nuisance offence, while Casella has also been charged with assault.

The pair have been released on bail and are due to appear at Redcliffe Magistrates Court on August 21.

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Ukrainian sea drones attacked a major naval base in Russia on Friday, leaving a damaged Russian warship listing in the Black Sea, in a brazen strike carried out hundreds of kilometres from Ukrainian-held territory.

Dramatic social media videos showed the vessel, an amphibious Russian landing ship, tilting badly and sitting very low in the water as it was being towed near the base at Novorossiysk, Russia's largest port.

It comes as Russia claims to have intercepted a US drone, accusing it of encroaching on the country's state border.

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The incident comes against the backdrop of rising tensions in the Black Sea and stepped up Ukrainian strikes against targets across Russia after President Volodymr Zelensky pledged to "return" the war to Russian territory.

A Ukrainian source told CNN that a sea drone carrying more than 450 kilograms of TNT had hit the ship, and claimed there were about 100 Russian servicemen aboard.

"A big navy ship, (the) Olenogorsky Gornyak, was hit," the source told CNN.

"As the result of the attack, the Russian ship has received serious damage and is not able to fulfill its duties."

CNN was provided with footage showing an unmanned sea drone approaching a ship that appears to match the identity of the one later seen listing in the port of Novorossiysk.

The 36-second video, shot from the sea drone, shows it approaching a ship at night.

The video ends just as the drone reaches its target.

The Ukrainian source said the operation was carried out jointly by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy.

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A Russian-appointed official said later on Friday that three Ukrainian sea drones had also been destroyed near the Kerch Strait and the area leading to the Crimean bridge.

The drones damaged a civilian Russian tanker, injuring some crew members, according to Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Zaporizhzhia military-civilian administration.

However, Russia's Federal Agency for Marine and River Transport said in a statement on Telegram that there were no casualties among the 11 crew.

A Ukraine Security Service source told CNN the hit on the Russian oil tanker, the SIG, was carried out in a joint operation with the Navy and that it involved a sea drone with 450kg of TNT.

The source said the SIG had been "transporting fuel for the Russian military."

CNN has not been able to independently verify the claims.

SIG is one of the biggest Russian oil tankers. It was built in 2014 and has a capacity of more than 4535 tonnes.

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An ambitious push

The strike at Novorossiysk was the latest demonstration of Kyiv's ambitious push to develop long-range unmanned attack vehicles at sea and in the air.

The drone that hit the ship would have had to travel several hundred kilometres to reach the port, whether launched from Ukrainian-controlled territory or from somewhere in the Black Sea.

Novorossiysk, near the Russian city of Krasnodar, is Russia's largest port by volume of cargo handled and is a base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet. It is ice-free year-round and has nearly 100 berths, and handles oil and gas exports as well as agricultural exports.

The Olenengorsky Gornyak was one of three Ropucha-class ships that entered the Black Sea weeks before the Russian invasion in February 2022, when a sea-borne assault on the coast around Odesa seemed a likely part of Moscow's strategy.

The Russians' failure to advance further west on land in the early days of the invasion, combined with the improvement in Ukrainian defences since then, has made such an operation highly unlikely and the ship, which is nearly 50 years old, would not have had a key role in the Russian navy's current Black Sea plans.

But the Ukrainians' ability to reach Novorossiysk serves notice that Russian surface ships and port infrastructure in the Black Sea are vulnerable to these fast and relatively stealthy weapons, especially with combat payloads of the size that struck the ship.

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'Changing the rules of the game'

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak praised the strike in a tweet, saying: "What is happening in the Black Sea? #Drones are changing the rules of the game, returning the waters to full-fledged foreign jurisdiction, and ultimately destroying the value of the Russian fleet. In fact, they are returning everyone to the international law of the sea."

Other Ukrainian officials were more cryptic in their responses to the attack.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine's Defense Intelligence, said just as "in Moscow there are unidentified flying objects" – in reference to recent drone strikes on the Russian capital – so too there are now "unidentified floating objects" in the Black Sea.

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Yusov said the attack was "a serious slap in the face" for the Kremlin and "in terms of security, of course, this is a big loss for the occupiers' fleet. Planning further landing operations, including the use of these vessels, becomes more problematic."

Russian military bloggers reacted to the attack with a mixture of anger, concern and surprise at the ability of Ukraine's sea drones to strike targets long assumed to be at a "safe" distance.

Sergey Mardan, a Russian journalist and television personality, said the "attack by Ukrainian marine drones on Novorossiysk is simply a quantum leap in the geography of the conflict.

It is much larger than even the drones attacking the offices of Russian government ministries."

Another commentator who writes under the pseudonym Kapral Gashetkin said: "Throughout the entire war, the Novorossiysk Naval Base was the rear of the Black Sea Fleet. It was thought to be relatively safe. However, it is time to realise that the enemy has a 'long arm' and can reach very far with it."

In a separate incident, Russia's defence ministry claimed its air defences downed 10 Ukrainian drones over Crimea on Friday morning and suppressed three others.

Some of the strikes on Crimea targeted an oil storage facility at the port of Feodosia, on the peninsula's southern coast.

According to Rybar, Russian troops shot down seven drones and downed another with "electronic warfare equipment."

Rybar said one of the drones "landed near an oil depot in the city," but "there is no data on damage yet."

Ukrainian officials said that attacks on the oil storage facility in Feodosia are "inevitable."

Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military in the south, said that "Everyone knows that there is a very massive oil storage facility (in Feodosia), where very large reserves can be stored for the Black Sea Fleet."

"It is clear that the (Russians) will defend this area. And it is clear that the enemy's logistics are concentrated to some extent in these places… Therefore, "cotton" (explosions) will bloom. And it is inevitable," Humeniuk said.

Black Sea strikes

Ukraine has previously targeted Russian naval assets in the Black Sea.

In April 2022, shortly after the invasion began, one of Russia's most important warships – the flagship guided-missile cruiser Moskva – sunk, with Ukraine claiming to have downed it with anti-ship cruise missiles.

Friday's attack comes as tensions ratchet up in the Black Sea, after Russia withdrew from a grain deal crucial to global food supplies and resumed its blockade of Ukraine's ports, as well as launching a prolonged bombardment of its infrastructure and grain storage facilities.

As Ukraine's sea drone program has developed, it has increasingly allowed the military to attack and surveil Russia's fleet in the Black Sea and on the occupied Crimean peninsula.

CNN was granted exclusive access to a sea drone base last week, where officials said the latest version of the drones had a range of 800 kilometres and were capable of traveling at 80 kilometres per hour.

Defense sources confirmed to CNN that sea drones were involved in several significant operations, including the attack in July on the Kerch Strait Bridge linking Crimea to Russia.

The strike took out a road section of the bridge, which is a vital supply artery for Russian forces.

One of the drone's developers told CNN that the size and speed of the unmanned boats made them tough for the Russians to track.

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"It is very difficult for them to get into such a small drone, it is very difficult to find it," the developer said.

"The speed of these drones exceeds any sea craft in the Black Sea region at the moment."

After the strike on Friday, Russian military blogger Rybar noted: "It is interesting that the drone approached the large landing ship freely. The crew probably did not expect an attack and therefore did not take measures to destroy the drone."

In recent weeks, Ukraine has increased its strikes on Russian territory, including in the capital Moscow, in an apparent shift in tactics and in rhetoric.

"Ukraine is getting stronger, and the war is gradually returning to Russia's territory, to its symbolic centers and military bases," Zelensky said in his daily address last Sunday.

"This is inevitable, natural and absolutely fair."

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