Ukrainian missiles hit Russian warship again: destroyed (Kyiv) or damaged (Moscow) | Abroad

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu briefed President Vladimir Putin on last night’s Ukrainian attack on the Crimean port of Feodosia and the damage sustained by the large landing ship Novocherkassk. Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Tuesday.

The spokesman did not provide details about the damage to the Ropucha (Polish for ‘toad’) class naval ship built in Poland in 1987 for the Soviet army. The Russian Defense Ministry, quoted by the Interfax news agency, also spoke only of “damage” and said Ukraine had used air-launched missiles.

The Ukrainian Air Force said its pilots attacked Feodosia at about 3:30 a.m. local time and destroyed the Novocherkassk with cruise missiles. Both Britain and France supplied Kyiv with such missiles.

Unverified videos on social media showed a massive explosion that caused a large fireball, followed by a giant column of smoke and billowing flames that lit up the night sky. The images, apparently taken by residents of Feodisia, could not immediately be verified. Crimea’s Russian-installed governor, Sergey Aksyonov, did report on Telegram that the attack had caused a fire in Feodosia: “One person was killed and two others were injured,” he added.

An unverified daylight photo, which Ukrainian bloggers say shows the remains of the ship, showed a charred, elongated lump of debris sticking out of the water near a dock.

According to Russian media, the 112.5-meter-long Novocherkassk is intended to transport up to ten tanks and 340 troops, but the Ukrainian military suspects that the ship was loaded with Iranian-made attack drones for use in the war.

“It is clear that such a large explosion was not caused only by fuel or ammunition from the ship itself,” southern command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk told Ukrainian television. Andrii Klymenko, head of the Black Sea Institute for Strategic Studies, shared that conclusion. “Judging from the video of the explosion, which was very powerful, the ship was carrying explosives: grenades or rockets, or, as some people say, drones,” he wrote in a text message.

Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat believes that it will be difficult for the Russian Navy to deploy the Novocherkassk again. “We can see how powerful the explosion was. After that it is very difficult for a ship to survive. This was not just a rocket, but also the detonation of explosives,” he told Radio Free Europe.

‘The fleet in Russia is getting smaller!’ Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote triumphantly on Telegram. He recalled the successful attack with naval drones on another Russian warship of the Ropucha class, at the beginning of August, and the ‘hit’ from last April. Then became the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet sunk. According to Ukraine and the US Pentagon, the Moskva on the Black Sea was hit by two Ukrainian missiles. Russia gave two different versions of the facts: the ship sank after an explosion following a fire on board or after a heavy storm.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joked on Telegram that his air force had expanded Russia’s submarine fleet by damaging the landing ship. “There will not be a single peaceful place for the occupiers in Ukraine,” he wrote.

Although the Ukrainian counter-offensive achieved little on the battlefield and the Russian army regained the initiative in several places, Ukraine managed to series of attacks in Crimea, headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, causing serious damage. The attacks targeted ships in dry docks, warships moored in the main port of Sevastopol, the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet there, air bases and the Crimean Bridge connecting southern Russia with the peninsula annexed in 2014. Putin’s prestigious bridge caught up two attacks badly damaged.

In recent months, Ukraine has sharply increased the pace of attacks on the peninsula. The Russian army uses it as a logistics hub for its hold on southern Ukraine. Fuel, ammunition and other supplies are stored there for transport to the battlefields. In addition, Crimea serves as a launching pad for air strikes on Ukraine.

Moscow has been using its Black Sea Fleet since the start of the war to carry out devastating precision cruise missile attacks deep into Ukraine. In an effort to reduce the threat, the Ukrainian military has repeatedly targeted the fleet, claiming in September that it had killed its commander.

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