A big Russian amphibious ship, the Caesar Kunikov, has sunk off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Ukraine’s armed forces.
Powerful explosions were heard early on Wednesday, according to local social media, which suggested the landing ship was hit south of the town of Yalta.
Ukraine’s intelligence directorate released video of what it said were Magura V5 sea drones striking the ship.
Ukraine has repeatedly hit Russia’s Black Sea fleet in occupied Crimea.
The attack breached the vessel’s port side and caused it to start sinking, Kyiv’s military spy agency and armed forces said on Wednesday.
There was no immediate comment from Russia, which said earlier that it had destroyed six drones in the Black Sea. The Kremlin declined to comment.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces, together with the Defence Ministry’s intelligence unit, destroyed the Caesar Kunikov large landing ship. It was in Ukraine’s territorial waters near Alupka at the time of the hit,” Ukraine’s military said on Telegram.
The Black Sea resort town of Alupka lies not far from Yalta on the southern edge of Crimea, which Russian forces seized and annexed from Ukraine in 201
Satellite images last year showed much of the fleet had left the peninsula for the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
Ahead of a Nato ministerial meeting in Brussels, the secretary general of the Western defensive alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, said Ukrainian forces had won a “great victory” in recent months, inflicting “heavy losses” on the Black Sea fleet that had opened a corridor for Ukrainian grain exports.
Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine is due to enter its third year next week and Ukraine’s armed forces chief has admitted the situation is “extremely complex and tense”.
