Conflicts & War

Ukraine sinks Russian landing ship in Black Sea, Kyiv says

Odesa, Ukraine, Feb 14 (EFE).- Ukraine has sunk a Russian amphibious landing ship in the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, Ukrainian armed forces said Wednesday.

In its daily report, Russia’s defense ministry did not acknowledge the incident, but it did report advances by its troops on the Donetsk and Lugansk fronts, regions in eastern Ukraine that Moscow seized in September 2022 but does not fully control.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with the units of the military intelligence (GUR), have destroyed the large amphibious assault ship of the occupants ‘Caesar Kunikov,” according to a statement published by the Ukrainian General Staff on its social media channels.

The Russian warship was destroyed in territorial waters legally belonging to Ukraine near Alupka, in the south of the occupied Crimean peninsula, the statement said.

Ukrainian military intelligence has also confirmed the operation to sink the ‘Caesar Kunikov’, which was destroyed by a Ukrainian naval drone, according to the GUR.

The ship destroyed in the attack had the capacity to carry a total of 87 people, the GUR said, adding that “most of the crew (…) died” without specifying how many people were on board.

The vessel had been used by Russia in its wars in Ukraine, Syria and Georgia, Kyiv’s military intelligence added.

It was the second ship in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that Kyiv has sunk in the last two weeks, after the missile-carrying corvette “Ivanovets” on Feb. 1 in the saltwater lake Donuzlav in Crimea, which is home to a naval base.

According to data from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia has since the start of the war lost a third of its Black Sea fleet in Ukrainian drone or missile attacks. EFE

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