The Ukrainian military announced on Sunday that it had directly hit and damaged a Russian Navy rescue ship, the oldest still in service worldwide, in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, home of the Black Sea Fleet.
According to Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the Kommuna vessel was hit while docked in the Sevastopol Bay yesterday morning and “it is clear that it is now (…) unable to carry out missions”.
The Ukrainian armed forces reported via Telegram that it is one of the oldest ships of the Russian Navy, launched in 1913.
According to reports, the catamaran was involved in a mission to retrieve bodies and sensitive material when the Ukrainian military sank the Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, in April 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly touted his military’s successes in attacks against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Crimea, a peninsula Russia annexed in 2014.
According to the representative of the Ukrainian PN Pletenchuk, in Ukrainian operations approximately one third of this fleet has been destroyed or put out of service since the outbreak of the war.
For his part, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvazaev said yesterday that Russian armed forces had repelled a missile attack targeting a docked ship, adding that debris had caused a small fire which he assured was immediately extinguished.
