On Sunday 24th March, 2024 Ukraine stated that it hit 2 two Russian Navy Ropucha Class/Project 775 III landing ships RFS AZOV and RFS YAMAL along with a communications center and several other facilities belonging to the Black Sea Fleet, in a huge overnight attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
There has been no comment from Russian defense officials, although Russian politician and Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev acknowledged on his Telegram channel that it was the “most massive attack in recent times.” A video posted to a local Telegram channel shows a series of large explosions in the city, sending fireballs and thick black smoke into the air. Another fireball can be seen in the far distance.
Hailing the attacks, Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on social media, “The sky and the sea are of the same color! I thank the pilots and navy for their successful combat work! Crimea is ours! To the victory together!”
Making no reference to any military sites hit, Razvozhayev said one person had been killed in the attack. Maritime and ground transportation in the city, he said, had been “partially damaged.”
More than 20 Russian naval vessels have now been disabled or destroyed, a third of the entire fleet. Though Ukraine has virtually no navy of its own, technological innovation, audacity and Russian incompetence have given it the upper hand in much of the Black Sea. In October last year, satellite imagery indicated that Russia relocated some of her naval ships away from Sevastopol after a series of Ukrainian attacks.
And below image of RFS YAMAL 156 moored at Sevastopol back to July 2009.
