Ukrainian naval drones hit and damaged a large Russian amphibious ship near occupied Crimea, the Ukrainian publication “Ukrainian Pravda” reported on Wednesday.

Ship “Cesar Kunikov”.Photo: Ozan KOSE / AFP / Profimedia
  • UPDATE 09:46 The Ukrainian military confirmed the information on its Telegram channel: “The Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with the intelligence unit of the Ministry of Defense, destroyed the large landing ship “Cesar Kunikov”. At the time of the attack, it was in Ukrainian territorial waters near Alupka.”

“Ukrainian Pravda” published several videos showing a column of smoke over the sea near the southern coast of Crimea, as well as helicopters flying over the sea.

People’s deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko also stated that the target was the Caesar Kunikov ship, which took part in Russia’s military operations in Georgia in 2008.

Russia has not yet commented on this information, but early this morning the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that it shot down six Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea. Whether there is a connection between these events is unclear.

“Cesar Kunikov” was an amphibious ship of the “Ropucha” class with a maximum displacement of more than 4,000 tons. She was 112 meters long and 15 meters wide and could develop a speed of more than 17 knots.

This is the second success of the Ukrainians this month after they announced on February 1 about the sinking of the Russian corvette “Ivanovets”, armed with guided missiles. The released images showed that the information is most likely true.

It will be recalled that in December, Ukrainian cruise missiles hit a large Russian warship that landed in Crimea. Then, during a spectacular Storm Shadow missile attack on the port of Feodosia, the Novocherkask, also a large amphibious assault ship of the “Ropucha” type, was hit.