By Galina Korol | 2024-02-08

KYIV -- Ukrainian strikes in recent months have caused significant damage to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, say observers.

Ukraine said February 1 it had destroyed a Russian warship in the Black Sea off the Crimean peninsula, which has come under increasing Ukrainian attacks, AFP reported.

Crimea, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014 and is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, has been extensively targeted by Ukrainian drones and missiles, putting Russia on the defensive.

"An enemy missile corvette was destroyed" during the night, Ukraine's military intelligence agency said in a statement online. Russia made no immediate comment.

The Ukraine agency named the vessel as the Ivanovets and claimed the ship was worth up to $70 million.

In a night-vision video it published purporting to show the attack, a small vessel is seen approaching the Russian ship, followed by a large explosion and the warship then appearing to start rolling over and sinking.

AFP was not able to independently verify the footage or Ukraine's account of the incident.

Kyiv said it happened near Lake Donuzlav -- a lake that flows into the Black Sea on the western coast of Crimea.

Ukraine also claimed a Russian search-and-rescue operation after the attack was "not successful."

While Moscow made no immediate statement, a Russian Telegram account with army links said Ukraine had attacked in the area with nine naval drones at night.

"Four of them were discovered by Russian sailors at the entry to Lake Donuzlav. They opened fire on them," it said, adding that the Russians destroyed four of the drones.

Destruction of the Novocherkassk

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force earlier on December 26 said it destroyed the Novocherkassk, a Russian ship off the Crimean peninsula suspected of carrying drones for use in Moscow's war against Kyiv.

At the time, the ship was near the pier in Feodosia, which is home to a major Russian naval base on the occupied Crimean peninsula.

The Novocherkassk was a Project 775/II Ropucha-class large landing ship (BDK-46) and has been part of the Russian navy since 1987.

The ship was designed for amphibious landings on undeveloped coastlines and for maritime transport of troops and cargo, including armored vehicles and tanks.

Ukraine's armed forces said that "on board of the ship were Shahed drones that Russia uses for attacks on Ukrainian cities" as well as other munitions.

"We definitely know that there were 4,500 artillery shells, several hundred rounds for multiple launch rocket systems, four 500kg guided bombs and two Kalibr missiles," a reservist colonel on the Ukrainian military's General Staff, Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov, told Kontur.

The News of Sevastopol and Independent Television websites reported on December 29 that the strike on the Novocherkassk killed 74 Russian sailors and wounded 27 others. The reports were subsequently deleted.

The Black Sea Fleet has lost three large landing craft, including the Novocherkassk, so far during the war.

The Saratov, a Tapir-class landing ship, was reported sunk or scuttled on March 24, 2022, in Berdyansk after sustaining missile damage.

The Minsk, another Ropucha-class landing ship, was functionally destroyed in dry dock last September 13, according to Ukrainian officials.

At least 15 vessels of Russia's Black Sea Fleet have been damaged or destroyed, the Voice of America's Russian service reported on December 30. They include a submarine carrying Kalibr cruise missiles, a tugboat armed with a Tor air defense system, and the missile carriers Askold and Veliky Ustyug, among others.

In April 2022, Ukraine also sank the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.

"And the [Black Sea] Fleet ... keeps getting smaller! Following the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, this time it was the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship," wrote Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk on his Telegram channel on December 26.

"Thanks to the Air Force pilots and everyone involved for their meticulous work!" he added.

'No longer a fleet'

"I would say that the Black Sea Fleet is no longer a fleet, but a flotilla. Why? Because there is no flagship. We sank the flagship, and we damaged the Admiral Makarov," said Zhdanov.

The Admiral Makarov assumed the role of flagship of the Black Sea Fleet after the sinking of the Moskva and was damaged in an attack in October 2022.

The Black Sea Fleet's losses have allowed Ukraine to achieve very important goals at sea and unblock its ports, added Zhdanov.

Ukraine struck the Black Sea Fleet's headquarters in Sevastopol in September, forcing Moscow to move warships to ports farther east.

"The most important thing is that we drove them into the eastern Black Sea and they no longer sail or fly into the western part. They are very afraid. They mainly keep their ships on the line between Novorossiysk and the Kerch Strait," said Zhdanov.

"What a disgrace," Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian State Duma and now political coordinator for the Political Center of the Freedom of Russia Legion, who spends most of his time in exile in Ukraine, told Kontur.

"Ukraine, a power with a very small navy, is sinking the Black Sea Fleet. The Russians have always boasted that the Black Sea Fleet controls the Black Sea, but as we now see, this is not the case," said Ponomarev.

Everything that is happening with the fleet now entirely invalidates what Russian President Vladimir Putin said in 2014 when he annexed Crimea, he said.

"At that time Mr. Putin said, 'Sevastopol and everything else [in Crimea] are so important,'" said Ponomarev.

However, Putin's grand visions never corresponded with reality.

"Every military expert said that the Black Sea would still be controlled by NATO countries, because NATO countries [hold sway over the Black Sea] other than the [Russian] coastline," said Ponomarev. "Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet itself have no strategic significance."

The fleet "is completely locked in by these straits controlled by Türkiye, a NATO country," he said, referring to the Dardanelles.