A Ukrainian Air Force commander has claimed that one of Russia’s most advanced ships in its Black Sea fleet has been sunk.
Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk reported the alleged sinking of the vessel in an attack on the Zaliv shipyard, also referred to as Butoma, in the east Crimean city Kerch in a November 5 Telegram post.
“Thank the Air Force tactical aviation pilots for the successful strikes by cruise missiles on the shipbuilding infrastructure of the Zaliv plant in Kerch, where one of the most advanced ships of the Russian Navy stood—the Kalibr cruise missile carrier,” Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram.
Strikes in Crimea, Russia’s central logistics hub for its forces in southern Ukraine, have become routine in recent months, with attacks focusing on military targets in a push to weaken Moscow’s defenses and disrupt Russia from transporting equipment, weapons and troops from mainland Russia into the peninsula.
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Oleshchuk said: “Also, thanks to the anti-aircraft gunners of the east air command for the downed Iskanders flying in response.”
Video shared in the same post seemingly shows footage of the airstrike and later includes images of a fire at a harbor.
Newsweek has not been able to independently verify the veracity of the footage and has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian armed forces for comment via email.
Russian state-owned RIA Novosti said that the ministry had confirmed a vessel at the Kerch shipyard had been damaged.
“The Ukrainian Armed forces launched a strike with 15 cruise missiles at the shipbuilding plant named after [Soviet statesman Boris] Butoma in Kerch. Thirteen cruise missiles were shot down by the air defense systems. As a result of being hit by an enemy cruise missile, a ship located at the plant was damaged.”
Ukrainian Strikes on Black Sea Fleet
Oleshchuk’s claims came as new satellite images showed the Russian landing ship Minsk had been dismantled just weeks after it was hit during a cruise missile attack in the south of the Crimean Peninsula.
Both the Minsk and the Rostov-on-Don Kilo-class attack submarine were struck by a combined cruise missile and drone strike on a shipyard on September 13 while they underwent repairs and maintenance. Kyiv claimed the attacks were ahead of a future attempt to liberate Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Satellite images shared by OSINT researcher MT Anderson on X, formerly known as Twitter, show that Russian authorities have since stripped down the Minsk, providing further evidence that it has been damaged beyond repair.
“Ultra high-res look at the dry docks around Sevastopol. The stripped-down Minsk has left the dry dock and is tied up just north of there. Rostov-on-Don (KILO) is still in the dry dock,” Anderson wrote on Thursday.
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukraine’s former defense minister who now advises the country’s Defense Ministry, previously told Newsweek that Kyiv is planning to eventually liberate Crimea.
“The only way to get out of this situation is to destroy the Black Sea Fleet, to destroy their capability to pursue occupation of the Black Sea and restore freedom of navigation,” he said.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.