Ukraine says it has destroyed a Russian landing warship off the coast of occupied Crimea in an operation with naval drones.
The attack breached the vessel’s port side and caused it to start sinking, Kyiv’s military spy agency and armed forces said on Wednesday.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which said earlier that it had destroyed six drones in the Black Sea. The Kremlin declined to comment.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces, together with the Defence Ministry’s intelligence unit, destroyed the Caesar Kunikov large landing ship. It was in Ukraine’s territorial waters near Alupka at the time of the hit,” Ukraine’s military said on Telegram.
The Black Sea resort town of Alupka lies not far from Yalta on the southern edge of Crimea, which Russian forces seized and annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency published grainy footage on Telegram purporting to show several naval drones approaching a large vessel at night and at least one large explosion.
The Reuters news agency was able to verify the ship in the video as the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Caesar Kunikov based off of its main mast, antenna, bridge and deck.
The location and date the footage was filmed could not be independently verified.
Some of the footage at the end appeared to show major damage, with the vessel listing heavily to one side.
A Ukrainian news outlet also published several videos showing a column of smoke rising over the sea off the southern coast of Crimea with helicopters flying overhead.
The Project 775 warship, one of Russia’s newest vessels, has a crew of 87 and took part in wars in Georgia, Syria and Ukraine, Ukraine’s spy agency said in its statement.
Ukraine has used uncrewed navy drones packed with explosives to attack Russian warships to try to drive them out of parts of the Black Sea, making it possible for Ukraine to open a shipping corridor along a traditionally key export route.
Ukraine has no large naval ships left, and deliberately scuttled its own flagship at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion to prevent it falling into Russian hands.
Newly developed naval drones have been vital for Ukraine as it tries to narrow the vast gap in its naval capabilities with Russia, which has a powerful Black Sea Fleet that Kyiv has been trying to degrade.
A senior Ukrainian security official said in December that it had already destroyed 20 per cent of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
That month, Ukrainian cruise missiles struck another large Russian landing warship in Crimea.
Reuters