What did 15 September 2023 follow in Kyiv?

What was the security picture on 15 September 2023, and what had just happened around it? In the preceding days, strikes in occupied and Russian-held areas, and a legal step in Kyiv, defined the news.

Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet

On 13 September 2023, Russia said at least 24 people were injured in Ukrainian missile strikes on Sevastopol, and that two boats were damaged. Ukraine claimed a larger result: the destruction of the Russian landing ship Minsk, the submarine B-237 and a KC-701-class patrol boat of the Black Sea Fleet.

The submarine B-237 is Rostov-na-Donu, a Project 636.3 diesel-electric attack submarine. It was commissioned on 26 December 2014 and became part of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Enerhodar and the nuclear plant

Also on 13 September 2023, the head of Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, said Ukraine had launched a drone strike on Enerhodar, near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. He said all six drones were destroyed. The claim was made by the Russian side, as part of the wider 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive.

A legal track opens in Kyiv

On 14 September 2023, the International Criminal Court opened a field office in Kyiv as part of its war crimes investigations. It became the largest ICC office outside its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.

What the sequence shows

Together, these reports show military pressure on Russian naval assets and on the area around Zaporizhzhia, alongside an expanding international legal presence in Ukraine. The two accounts of the Sevastopol strikes differed: Russia spoke of injuries and damaged boats, while Ukraine claimed the loss of three vessels. Both accounts stood side by side as of 15 September 2023.