Ukraine claims to have destroyed a Russian Navy landing ship in Crimea
(Baonghean.vn) - According to Reuters, the Ukrainian air force said on December 26 that it had destroyed a large Russian landing ship stationed in Crimean waters, after the Crimean Governor said that Kiev's attack caused a fire in the port of Feodosia.
The information was announced by the Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force Mykola O Meatchuk on the messaging application Telegram, but without any specific evidence. In another statement, the Ukrainian Air Force said that their pilots attacked Feodosia at around 2:30 a.m. on December 26 (local time) with cruise missiles, destroying the Novocherkassk ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. This statement also did not provide evidence to prove it.
Earlier in the day, Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov said only that the Ukrainian attack had led to a fire in the port area, which was brought under control in time. “All relevant emergency services are at the scene. Some houses will be evacuated,” Aksyonov said on Telegram.
In a statement, Crimean authorities said that for “technical reasons” trains would not depart from Feodosia for the time being and that road traffic in Feodosia had been partially blocked. Feodosia, a city of about 69,000 people, is located on the southern coast of the Crimean peninsula. Videos posted on Telegram by several Russian news agencies showed explosions and fires at a port area.
Meanwhile, according to RT, the Russian Defense Ministry also confirmed on the morning of December 26 that Kiev's missiles launched at night damaged the Novocherkassk landing ship anchored at the base in Feodosia. The statement said that the fighting also resulted in two Ukrainian Su-24 jets, used to launch missiles at targets, being shot down by Russian anti-aircraft weapons near the city of Nikolaev.
Also according to RT, Crimea Governor Aksyonov said that one person died and two others were injured in the attack. The explosions at the military facility also affected the windows of nearby buildings, but other civilian infrastructure was not affected.
Landing ships are primarily used to transport large military cargo and deploy ground forces in amphibious operations. The Novocherkassk can carry 10 main battle tanks and 340 soldiers. It is a Ropucha-class ship, produced by Poland from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine has said what type of weapon was used in the nighttime attack, but some military experts believe it was a Storm Shadow air-to-surface cruise missile that Britain supplied to Kiev earlier this year.
The weapon is believed to have been deployed in an attack on a military dock in Sevastopol in September, in which the Kilo-class diesel-electric attack submarine Rostov-on-Don and the Ropucha-class landing ship Minsk were hit.