Ukraine destroyed a Russian tanker that Moscow used for surveillance and for deploying first-person-view (FPV) drones in southern Ukraine, according to Kyiv’s military.
Ukraine’s air force conducted a “successful strike” on the Russian-flagged Mechanik Pogodin on Tuesday, Kyiv’s navy said in a statement.
Ukraine said Russia’s military was using the vessel as a command center, with the ship serving to launch FPV drones and to carry electronic warfare (EW) equipment. Kyiv said the use of the vessel for surveillance and control made the tanker a legitimate military target.
A brief video posted by Ukraine’s armed forces appeared to show the moment of the strike on the tanker. The clip shows a large explosion on one end of the ship, and a dark cloud of smoke billowing up from the vessel. Pieces of debris can be seen crashing into the water surrounding the ship. Newsweek could not independently verify the footage.
“Thanks to the pilots for the successful combat work against the enemy control point!” Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Air Force, said in a statement.
Ukrainian Navy/ Facebook
The vessel had been docked in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, before moving to the Kinburn Spit after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June 2023, the navy said. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
The Kinburn Spit, currently controlled by Russia, sits on the mouth of the Dnieper River and can control vessels reaching and leaving the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv.
Ukraine made sweeping gains in Kherson in its first counteroffensive in late 2022, pushing Russian forces back to the east bank of the Dnieper River that has roughly marked the front lines in the region throughout 2023.
Since the fall of 2023, Kyiv’s forces have been whittling away at Russian defenses on the east bank, establishing pockets of control in villages such as Krynky. But Ukraine is also contending with Russian offensives further north in Donetsk, and along the northeastern frontlines close to the Kharkiv city of Kupiansk.
There were no confirmed changes to the current frontlines on the Russian-controlled east or left bank of the Dnieper in Kherson on Tuesday, according to the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday morning that Russian forces had attempted to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their footholds on the left back of the Dnieper River. Russia carried out three “unsuccessful assaults” on Kyiv’s positions in the past day, the Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had destroyed Ukrainian drones operating around the Kherson village of Rybalche, to the east of the Kinburn Spit.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.