Ukraine takes out Black Sea Fleet landing craft Novocherkassk

Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces posted this image said to show Novocherkassk in flames.

Ukraine appears to have effectively destroyed another Russian Black Sea Fleet vessel, the large amphibious assault landing ship Novocherkassk.

The ship was moored in Feodosia in occupied Crimea when it was struck by aircraft-launched cruise missiles at around 2:30 a.m. local time this morning.

Photos posted on the Telegram channel by Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces showed what was said to be the Novocherkassk in flames and subsequently what was captioned as “The ‘minor’ damage to the large landing ship Novocherkassk… Or, rather, its minor remains.”

A report in the New York Times quotes Ukraine’s military as saying that it suspected that the ship was carrying Iranian-made attack drones for use in the war, with Natalia Humeniuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian army in the south, telling national television that “it is clear that such a large detonation was caused not just by fuel or ammunition of the ship itself.” Andrii Klymenko, the head of the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies, agreed. “Judging by the video of the explosion, which was very powerful, it was carrying explosives: either shells or missiles, or, as some people say, drones,” he wrote in a text message.

“This latest destruction of Putin’s navy demonstrates that those who believe there’s a stalemate in the Ukraine war are wrong!,” said U.K. Secretary of Defence Grant Schapps in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “They haven’t noticed that over the past 4 months 20% of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has been destroyed.”

Delivered by the Stocznia Północna shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, in 1987, the Novocherkassk is a Ropucha-class landing ship. It was previously reported as being damaged in a March 22, 2022, Ukrainian attack.

The Russian version of things from the state-controlled TASS new agency said, in part:

“A missile strike by the Ukrainian armed forces on Feodosia, Crimea, has killed one person and left two others wounded, and damaged the Novocherkassk, a Russian Navy amphibious assault landing ship, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“According to the ministry, the two Ukrainian air force Su-24 fighter jets that attacked Feodosia were shot down some 125 kilometers northeast of the city of Nikolayev.”

Ukrainian sources later denied that the two jets had been shot down.

Subsequently New York Times journalist Christiaan Triebert tweeted a satellite image showing the status of the Novocherkassk.