Ukraine military intelligence services claimed that it has managed to sink another successful drone attack Russian warship off the coast of occupied Crimea.
Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper),Ukraine military intelligence services on Tuesday sank the Sergey Kotov, a Russian warship after striking high-tech sea drones using Magura V5 over it in the black sea. The attack resulted in the killing of seven people, six were injured in the strike, while 52 crew were rescued, as Kyiv said.
Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said in a statement, “Right now this ship is on the seabed,”. He added: “And, by the way, they were also supposed to have a helicopter on board. This is the case where you ‘get two for the price of one’ so why pay more?”
Ukraine military officials said a special unit called Group 13 fired Magura V5 maritime kamikaze drones at the Sergey Kotov – a patrol ship, worth $65m (£51m) located near the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea, as Kyiv said. That warship reportedly can carry cruise missiles and around 60 crew members. It is the latest significant attack following a series of strikes that has grabbed Moscow’s naval power and limited its operations in the third year of the Russia-Ukraine war.
In a conversation allegedly intercepted by HUR, a Russian commander claimed that there was a Russian helicopter on board. Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing unnamed sources, that a Russian Ka-29 transport and combat helicopter was destroyed along with the vessel. “Right now this ship is on the seabed as a result of fire damage by unmanned boats,” navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said in televised comments.
Ukrainian Government indirectly celebrate the strike:
UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps shared the video released by Ukraine’s military intelligence, stating “The Black Sea is not safe for Putin’s Navy”. “Until recently that would have been unimaginable. Now because the West backed Ukraine, it’s undeniable,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine had “proven what we are capable of” against Russia’s navy and air force, but he didn’t directly refer to the reported sinking war vessel. “There are no safe havens for Russian terrorists in the Black Sea and nor will there be,” he said in his nightly video address on Tuesday.
He further stated, “That is shown by the number of downed Russian aircraft and the capabilities of our boys against the Russian fleet. There are no safe havens for Russian terrorists in the Black Sea and nor will there be,” adding, “no safe space for them in the sky, given sufficient Ukrainian strength”.
Previous history of attacks:
The strikes were followed by the other major efficient Ukrainian attacks on Russian vessels earlier this year. In February, Ukraine claimed to hit drones and sank the Russian warships. On 1 February, it claimed to have sunk the Russian missile-armed corvette Ivanovets, and on 14 February it said it destroyed the Caesar Kunikov landing ship. These attacks have deprived the Russian military of some of its important intelligence-gathering areas.
However, the claim by the Ukrainian government could not be verified, also Russian authorities have not approved the claim publicly but some Russian war bloggers confirmed that the Ukraine strike by calling it an eventual loss.
Despite struggling to keep the Russian army off at some points along the front line of 1500 kilometers, Kyiv still manages to have plenty of successful target aims far beyond it as well In the Black Sea, Russians are unable to resist the Ukrainian strikes including the sinking of the flagship cruiser Moskva in April 2022 and a devastating missile attack on the fleet’s headquarters in occupied Crimea that reportedly killed more than 30 officers. It has eventually allowed Ukraine to set up a grain export corridor.
Meanwhile, the trains and highway traffic were temporarily halted and later resumed on a bridge spanning the Kerch Strait that connects the Crimean Peninsula to the Russian mainland, as information provided by Moscow-installed officials.
It is worth noting that Russia controls close to one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory including the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Zelenskiy said in November Kyiv had seized the initiative in the Black Sea and forced back Russia’s fleet.
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