The second air strike against the peninsula in the past two days, according to the Russian-installed authorities in occupied Crimea, came from Ukrainian forces. Kyiv is increasingly focusing on the area in an effort to obstruct Moscow's military efforts.

The governor of Sevastopol, the biggest city in Crimea and the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said that the area's air defenses had been activated and that rocket debris had fallen into the harbor. On Saturday morning, the local government issued several alerts about potential air assaults, advising citizens to remain calm and seek safety.

The Black Sea Fleet's command center was destroyed by a missile strike fired by Ukrainian forces the day prior to the attack on Saturday. A serviceman was missing in action, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The simultaneous attacks on Crimea, which Russia illegitimately annexed in 2014, are a part of a Ukrainian campaign to strike far behind Russian lines in an effort to break up Moscow's supply line on the battlefield and limit its capacity to attack Ukrainian territory from a distance. Recent weeks have seen a substantial increase in the number of attacks by Ukraine on the peninsula, which have targeted command posts, submarines, and air defense installations.

Moscow has utilized Crimea to store fuel and weaponry that will be sent to the battlegrounds in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv is presently attempting to breach Russian defensive lines, since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion last year. Additionally, the Black Sea Fleet's ships have launched many missiles at Ukraine.

According to Samuel Bendett, a Russian weapons specialist at the Center for Naval Analysis, "a lot of Ukrainian cities and towns are within reach from Crimea." If Russia wants to continue its military effort, keep Ukraine off balance, and preserve its positions in the lands it has already conquered, control of Crimea is crucial.

Whether any strategic targets were hit by Saturday's attack was not immediately evident. Mr. Razvozhayev claimed that debris had landed in a park roughly one mile north of the harbor and close to the pier in the Sukharnaya Bay, a smaller bay that is part of the larger Sevastopol Bay and is home to numerous military ships and submarines. Emergency services had already arrived in the area, according to the Russian state news agency Tass, and passenger ship traffic had been halted.

It's also unknown how extensive Friday's assault on the Black Sea Fleet's command center was. The building was hit, according to Russia's national news agency, but no one was hurt and no damage was done to the nearby civilian area.

At least one airborne weapon struck what seemed to be the headquarters, according to video footage, covering the structure in dense black smoke.

“Hitting such an object always has a very powerful result, not only in terms of firepower, but also in terms of moral and psychological impact,” Natalia Humeniuk, the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military southern command, said on Ukrainian television. “Because hitting command and control points always adds more confusion to the command and control of troops.”

As Kiev tries to seize a portion of the Black Sea as a result of Moscow's pullout from a pact that permitted Ukraine to export its grain by sea, attacks on Sevastopol and the Russian naval fleet have increased. Around the same time, the Russian military issued a warning that it would see any ship that approached a Ukrainian port as a possible military threat.

This week's U.N. General Assembly debated the grain deal, which was mediated by Turkey and the Organization. Sergey V. Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, said at a news conference on Saturday that there was little possibility of the accord being revived and that plans to do so were "not realistic." Russia has stated that it won't sign the agreement again until terms are satisfied that enable its own fertilizers and agricultural products to reach international markets.

According to Iulia-Sabina Joja, director of the Middle East Institute's Black Sea Program, Ukrainian forces have since targeted the Black Sea Fleet in an effort to get it to avoid a safe passageway that Kyiv has been attempting to create for civilian freighters in the sea's northwest.

Grain-loaded ships went via the passage twice this week without incident, and the American ambassador in Kiev announced on Saturday that three more cargo ships would likely follow suit.