The Ukrainian Air Force carried out a successful strike on a Russian Ropucha-class tank landing ship while it was at pier-side in the Crimean port of Feodosia. The attack took place at approximately 2:30 a.m. local time and was carried out by the Ukrainian Air Force using either a Storm Shadow (UK-supplied) or SCALP-EG (French-supplied) cruise missile. Post-attack imagery from Russian sources shows the ship submerged.
The destroyed ship, the Novocherkassk, is 369 feet long and capable of carrying ten main battle tanks and 340 troops. Here is a video of it in 2020.
🚨 BREAKING: Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of the Air Force of Ukraine reports Russia's Black Sea Fleet Large Landing Ship Novocherkassk (BDK-46) has been SUNK at the Feodosia port in Crimea as a result of this night's strike.
— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) December 26, 2023
Footage of this 112.5m long (369 ft) ship from 2020: https://t.co/JC43bdRZGc pic.twitter.com/i3e6pDTW5U
The fact that someone was taking video of the targeted ship at 2:30 in the morning should serve as a clue that this was a complex operation coordinating intelligence operatives and the Ukrainian Air Force. Unconfirmed reports say the size of the explosion was due to the ship being used as a floating storage facility for Shahed drones.
This is the clearest video so far of the Ukrainian missile strike against the Russian Ropucha-class landing ship in Crimea.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) December 26, 2023
According to some reports, 87 Russians were killed in the huge explosion pic.twitter.com/VXyWpQWtgD
Russian television ran video showing a slab of the Novocherkassk's hull plating in a supermarket parking lot.
Russian state media finds a chunk of the plating from the "Novocherkassk" landing ship Ukraine struck overnight in the garden patch outside of a grocery store in Feodosia, Crimea. No worries. Coat of paint and she'll be good as new. pic.twitter.com/oMRtVxiI3h
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) December 26, 2023
This image below gives the before/after view. The colored rectangles correspond.
Reports say that 87 sailors died in the explosion; if true, that is about 100% of the ship's complement.
A Ropucha Class ship has a compliment of almost 100 men. Assume 80% manning, max with some portion of that number out of town.
— cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) December 26, 2023
What was she carrying? https://t.co/Kq5jshPhFb
This is not the Novocherkassk's first rodeo; it was one of three Russian ships damaged by a Ukrainian ballistic missile strike on the Russian port of Berdyansk on March 24, 2022; see WATCH: Ukraine Blows up Russian Ship as War Enters Second Month. And it is just the latest in the list of Black Sea Fleet vessels sunk or damaged by Ukraine.
I've previously posted on two of those attacks: Ukrainian Attack on Russian Fleet Leaves One Ship and One Sub Destroyed With No Nuclear War and BREAKING: Russian Navy Ship Heavily Damaged by Ukrainian Drone Strike.
The key takeaway from this attack is that it shows Crimea is not a tenable base for the Russian Navy. Feodosia is the base furthest from Ukraine.
The Russian Navy has largely evacuated Sevastopol. The main surface units of the Black Fleet have been deployed to ports in Russia or Latakia, Syria. The ability of Ukrainian Air Force strike aircraft to penetrate this deeply into Russian-controlled territory shows the extent to which Russian early warning and air defense systems have been degraded.
The Black Sea Fleet has been neutralized, its blockade of Ukrainian ports lifted, and the Black Sea grain corridor opened (Putin's War, Week 90. Grain Corridor Reopens and Russia Hints at Another Major Retreat) by a decidedly no naval power.
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