Ukrainian Navy Calls Destruction Of Russian Warship A 'Serious Blow' To War Effort
The Novocherkassk as seen during strategic drills in 2016
The Ukrainian Navy has described the destruction of a Russian landing ship in the occupied Crimean Peninsula as a "serious blow" to Russia's war operations against Ukraine.
Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on December 27 that the damage inflicted upon the Novocherkassk landing ship during an air strike on the Crimean port of Feodosia on December 26 will significantly harm Russia's logistics capabilities.
Russia confirmed the ship had been damaged, and new satellite imagery taken on December 26 by Maxar Technologies appears to show the wreckage of a sunken ship along the quay of the Feodosia port, and other damaged port equipment.
Pletenchuk also claimed that the Russian military is currently unable to use the Crimean Bridge, a key route for transporting military supplies from the Russian mainland to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
Now, with the loss of the Novocherkassk, the Russian military will only be able to use ferries to transport military cargo because it has "not been able to use large amphibious ships in the Black Sea for a long time," according to Pletenchuk.
Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said that the December 26 air strikes caused an explosion that indicated that ammunition on the large landing ship had detonated.
He said the ship was used to transport equipment, weapons, and personnel to Feodosia and other Russian-occupied ports on the Ukrainian Peninsula.
In addition to the damage sustained by the Novocherkassk, the training ship UTS-150 was also damaged and partially sunk, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported on December 26.
The satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies also show a smaller ship partially submerged not far from the apparent wreckage of the Novocherkassk.
This combination of satellite images released on December 27 by Maxar Technologies and taken in the Russian-controlled eastern Crimean port of Feodosia on December 5 (top) and on December 26 (below), shows the Novocherkassk landing ship before and after the Ukrainian strike.
Pletenchuk said that successful Ukrainian attacks have seriously depleted Russia's naval forces, leaving it with only six large ships on the Black Sea and none on the Sea of Azov.
Crimea.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, reported that, following the December 26 attack, two Russian vessels left the port of Feodosia. It was not possible to identify the ships by name, but judging by their size the vessels were a military ship and a military boat belonging to Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
Pletenchuk said that, including the strike that hit the Novocherkassk, Ukrainian forces had disabled seven large Russian ships.
WATCH: Ukraine hit a major naval port in the city of Feodosia in Russian-occupied Crimea, and claimed a Russian naval landing ship docked there was destroyed.
Following the December 26 attack, British Defense Minister Grant Shapps wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that 20 percent of Russia's Black Sea Fleet had been destroyed in the past four months.
"Russia's dominance in the Black Sea is now challenged," Shapps wrote.
The most significant loss suffered by the Russian Navy came in April 2022, when the Black Sea Fleet flagship guided-missile cruiser Moskva was sunk south of the Ukrainian port of Odesa. In September, the Rostov-On-Don diesel electric submarine was damaged while in port in Sevastopol.
The Crimean Bridge, a major transport link opened in 2018 after Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, has been heavily targeted by Ukrainian forces since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia's Growing List Of Naval Losses
1/10The Novocherkassk large landing ship as seen during strategic drills in 2016. The Ukrainian Air Force said air strikes on the Novocherkassk in the Crimean port of Feodosia on December 26 heavily damaged the ship. The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that the ship had been struck.
The training ship UTS-150 was also damaged and partially sunk, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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The Askold corvette undergoes sea trials in October 2022.
On November 4, the Karakurt-class Askold corvette, which had yet to enter service with the Russian Navy, was struck by an apparent cruise missile. Ukraine later announced the ship's "destruction." Russia’s Defense Ministry described it as "damaged."
Karakurt corvettes are capable of launching up to eight cruise missiles and are equipped with a version of the Pantsir antiaircraft missile system.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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Russia’s Minsk, a Ropucha-class landing craft, cruises off the coast of St. Petersburg in July 2021.
In September 2023, several missiles struck a shipyard in the Sevastopol naval base in Russian-occupied Crimea. According to Britain's Defense Ministry, the Minsk was almost certainly "functionally destroyed" in the strike. Photos of the aftermath showed the ship smoldering and severely damaged.
The Minsk was built in Poland in 1983 and designed with a pop-open bow that could disgorge as many as 25 armored personnel carriers onto a beachhead.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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The Rostov-on-Don diesel-electric submarine is seen off the coast of Sevastopol in May 2020.
The Rostov-on-Don, which was launched in 2014, was also struck in the September 2023 strike on the Sevastopol naval base. The sub was severely damaged and will either be out of service for an extended period or scrapped.
The sub was filmed in December 2015 firing a barrage of Kalibr cruise missiles at what the Russian military described as Islamic State targets in Syria.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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The Ropucha-class Olenegorsky Gornyak landing craft on St. Petersburg’s Neva River in July 2021
In August 2023, videos released show a marine drone impacting the landing craft in the Russian port of Novorossiisk. The ship suffered "severe damage" in the attack, according to the British Defense Ministry, and videos later emerged showing the vessel listing heavily under tow
The Polish-made vessel is from the same Ropucha class as the Minsk that was apparently destroyed in September.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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A Serna-class landing craft carries an infantry fighting vehicle along the Volga River in July 2015.
A Serna was hit with a missile fired from a Bayraktar drone while docking on Snake Island in May 2022.
Serna landing craft are made to carry armored vehicles into "over-the-beach" assault landings and transport cargo. The block-shaped vessels use a unique "air-cavity" design that pumps air under the ship's hull to reduce drag.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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The Moskva guided-missile cruiser sails in the Caspian Sea in 2012.
The Russian flagship was famously sunk in April 2022 off the Ukrainian coast, south of Odesa. Ukraine claims the ship sank after being struck by two domestically produced Neptune anti-ship missiles. Russia said the Moskva foundered after an unspecified "fire," which detonated ammunition on board. It was the largest Russian warship to be sunk since World War II.
The cruiser carried some 500 sailors and wielded a formidable array of weapons, including 16 large cruise missiles.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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The Tapir-class Saratov landing ship takes part in an amphibious-landing exercise on a beach in Crimea in October 2021.
In March 2022, the Saratov was hit by a Tochka-U ballistic missile and sunk in the port of Berdyansk, Ukraine. Video of the aftermath of the strike showed other Russian vessels escaping the port as the Saratov burned. The charred remains of the vessel were later hauled back to the surface of the port using a dock crane.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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A Russian Raptor-class patrol boat near Kronstadt in 2016
At least two of the high-speed patrol boats were destroyed by a Ukrainian Bayraktar drone off Snake Island in March 2022.
Raptors are fitted with a remotely controlled weapon, armor, and bullet-resistant glass. They first entered service with the Russian Navy in 2015.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
10/10The Veliky Bekh rescue tug in port in Sevastopol, Crimea, in June 2021
Ukraine announced it had destroyed the tug in the Black Sea in June 2022 as the vessel was allegedly ferrying supplies to Russian-occupied Snake Island. The tugwas hit with two Harpoon anti-ship missiles. A memorial to the to the crew of the tugboat, several of whom were reportedly civilian, was unveiled in Sevastopol in June 2023.
The ship was designed to tow stricken vessels, fight fires, and serve as a base for rescue diving operations. It was launched in 2016.
A Ukrainian air strike on the large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk on December 26 is the latest in a string of attacks that have hobbled Moscow's naval capacity since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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Both the rail and the automotive sections of the bridge were heavily damaged in a truck explosion in October 2022. In July, a sea-drone attack collapsed one section of the vehicle traffic span and damaged the separate rail section.
The bridge was most recently closed to traffic following sea-drone strikes on December 21.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force said on December 27 that "waves" of Russian kamikaze drones targeted Ukrainian territory overnight, with 32 of 46 drones shot down.
The governor of the Odesa region said that a 35-year-old man was killed by debris from a downed drone in a residential area.
The Interior Ministry said four people, including a 6-year-old child, were wounded.
The air force said the drones were fired from the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and from Russia's southwestern Krasnodar region.
The attacks ended in the early morning hours of December 27, with some successfully striking near the front lines in Ukraine's east and west.
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service has seen its audience grow significantly since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 and is among the most cited media outlets in the country. Its bold, in-depth reporting from the front lines has won many accolades and awards. Its comprehensive coverage also includes award-winning reporting by the Donbas.Realities and Crimea.Realities projects and the Schemes investigative unit.
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