The Military Intelligence Service of Ukraine (GUR) said on the social media service Telegram that it had sunk a warship that cost 60-70 million dollars. Russia does not comment.
Ukraine says it sank the Russian corvette, the Ivanovets.
Reuters released a video showing the alleged drone strike. According to the video, at least three sea drones hit Ivanovets. They try to fire at the drones from the ship, but they succeed in their mission and explode with devastating consequences.
The video is allegedly from the night between Wednesday and Thursday.
It is a light Molnija-class missile corvette completed in 1988. The ship belonged to the 298th missile boat squadron of the 41st missile boat brigade, ‘s expert confirms Marko Eklund.
– It is a relatively small, 56-meter ship. The crew of the ship class in question includes about 40 people, says Eklund.
The ship’s main weapon is four P-270 “Moskit” naval surface-to-air missiles, the range of which is estimated to be 120–250 kilometers, depending on the version. The missile flies at more than twice the speed of sound, and a version that can be launched from an airplane has also been used.
According to the Ukrainian military intelligence service, the ship was patrolling off the Crimean peninsula.
According to the security company Ambrey, Ukraine probably used six drones in the attack. Each contains about 300 kilograms of explosives. This is reported by the news agency AP.
Russia has not commented on the sinking, but the Telegram channel linked to the Russian military reported that Ukraine had attacked the area with nine maritime drones at night. According to the channel, four of the drones were spotted and fire was opened at them.
According to the channel, one of the targeted ships was “damaged”.
Sources: AP, AFP, STT