Russian corvettes damaged
Ukraine reports two more Black Sea hits
October 13, 2023, 5:42 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
The Ukrainian armed forces say they have new sea drones with “experimental weapons”. Two Russian corvettes appear to be the first victims in the Black Sea. They are said to have been hit in their anchorage off Sevastopol.
Russia may have to do without two more ships from its Black Sea fleet. Ukrainian media, citing sources at the domestic secret service SBU, report successful attacks near the port city of Sevastopol. It is said that the Ukrainian armed forces damaged two Russian ships not far from Crimea.
Accordingly, a missile ship of the type “Bujan-M” and the heavy patrol boat “Pawel Derzhavin” were attacked in their outer anchorages by Ukrainian naval drones that have new “experimental weapons”. The target was also the submarine “Alrossa”.
The information cannot be independently verified, but it is circulating on Twitter and Telegram Video, which is supposed to show the damaged “Bujan”: The slowly moving ship trails a pitch-black cloud of smoke behind it. In addition, Russian media in Crimea have confirmed several explosions in the port of Sevastopol. However, the Moscow-appointed governor of the port city, Michael Razvoshayev, claims on Telegram that the noises were just exercises against underwater sabotage teams.
Many hits in the Black Sea
The Bujan-M class corvettes feature stealth technology and are designed for coastal and inland water protection as well as for landing and supporting special forces. Heavy corvettes of the “Vasily Bykov” class, which also includes the “Pawel Derzhavin”, are modular in design and can be equipped, among other things, with Kalibr cruise missiles, which Russia regularly uses to attack Ukrainian territory.
Currently, Russia has four Vasily Bykov class corvettes. All are deployed in the Black Sea. In addition to the “Pawel Derzhavin”, Ukraine said it also hit and seriously damaged the “Sergei Kotov” with sea drones in September. Also in September, Ukraine carried out an attack on the Sevastopol dry dock, hitting the landing ship “Minsk” and the Russian submarine “Rostov”. British military experts estimate that both ships were disabled.
Already in April 2022, Ukraine sank the “Moskva”, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In September 2023, the fleet headquarters in Sevastopol was destroyed in an air strike.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. The peninsula has been increasingly the target of Ukrainian attacks for several weeks. In particular, the port city of Sevastopol, which serves as the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was attacked several times. The aim of the attacks is to reduce the operational capability of the fleet, which plays an important role in Russia’s war of aggression.