Russia’s defense ministry said on Wednesday it had sunk the Yury Olefirenko, the last warship in the Ukrainian navy, after Russian media reported last year that it had been hijacked.

Russian military correspondent Andriy Rudenko first reported on the sinking of the ship in his Telegram channel, citing a Ukrainian source who reported that the ship was sunk by Russian troops in the Black Sea port of Odessa.

“It appears that a fire broke out on deck which caused the ammunition in the hold to detonate. After that, Yuriy Olefirenko dived,” said the post published before midnight on Tuesday.

Administrators of the Rybar Telegram channel announced shortly after they were able to independently confirm the sinking of the ship.

What the Russians say about the attack on the ship “Yuriy Olefirenko”

“We confirm. As a result of missile attack on the port infrastructure of Odesa, the medium amphibious ship of the Naval Forces of Ukraine “Yuriy Olefirenko” was damaged. In connection with the damage received, it is assumed that the ship sank,” they said.

The information was also made public by the spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defense, General Igor Konashenkov, during the daily briefing on the development of the “special military operation”.

“On May 29, as a result of a high-precision weapon attack by the Russian Air Force in the area of ​​warships in the port of Odesa, the last warship of the Navy of Ukraine, Yury Olefirenko, was destroyed,” he said.

The Russians’ statements came after Serhii Bratchuk, the head of the Ukrainian military administration of Odesa region, said on Monday that kamikaze drones attacked and damaged the port infrastructure of the port city, after which a fire broke out.

However, according to him, the fire was extinguished quickly.

Official Kyiv and Ukrainian mass media have not yet commented on the information spread by Russia.

How the ship “captured” by Russia again ended up in the hands of Ukrainians

Last month last year, Russian media announced that the ship had been seized by the military in the Ukrainian port of Berdyansk and that it would be transferred to a naval base in Novorossiysk, one of Russia’s eastern Black Sea ports in the Krasnodar region. .

But only two months later, “Yuriy Olefirenko” was spotted under the control of Ukraine near the Okean port of the Mykolaiv region, and then took part in strikes against Russian positions in Kherson.

It is believed that she took part in Ukrainian operations on the Kinburn Peninsula, where one of the most mysterious actions of Kyiv since the beginning of the Russian invasion took place.

“Yuriy Olefirenko” would be the flagship of the Ukrainian fleet, if Ukraine still had a fleet

“Yuriy Olefirenko” is a medium amphibious ship launched in 1971 and reached Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

As noted by the Forbes agency in November of last year, “Yuriy Olefirenko” is the last large ship of the Naval Forces of Ukraine. It will be recalled that most of the Ukrainian fleet was captured by Russia during the occupation and then the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Another large ship that the Ukrainians had before the beginning of the Russian invasion, the frigate “Hetman Sahaidachny”, was sunk by its own Ukrainian crew in the port of Mykolaiv on March 4 last year, so that it would not fall into the hands of the Russians in the event of the occupation of the city.

“Hetman Sahaidachny” was appointed the flagship of the Ukrainian fleet after the loss of most of its ships off the Crimea.

Despite being an amphibious ship, the Yury Olefirenko has quite a powerful armament for such a ship, including anti-missile defense systems to protect both the ship and the troops during the landing.

In addition to this ship, what remains of the Ukrainian fleet also includes various small warships, usually for coastal patrols, mines or port operations.

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