Huge explosions were heard in Feodosija, on the southern coast of the annexed Crimean Peninsula, during the night of Tuesday. In footage that appears to show the sequence of events, a large ball of fire is seen rising from the port.
The Russian landing ship Novocherkassk has been sunk, announced Mykola Oleshtyuk, supreme commander of the Ukrainian Air Force.
“The fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller,” he wrote on Telegram early Tuesday morning.
According to consistent information from several sources, Ukrainian aircraft fired cruise missiles at the port of Feodosia.
Mast and stern
Images from the port of Feodosija indicate that the Russian ship has been completely destroyed. Analyst Oliver Alexander, who follows the progress of the war through open sources, has reviewed several images. In one, the harbor area can be seen on fire at night. On one, in daylight, he points out Novocherkassk’s mast and stern, where they stand out among burned-out remains in the water by the harbor quay.
“There is practically nothing left of Novocherkassk. As you can see, the entire forward half of the ship is under water or completely destroyed,” writes Alexander on X.
The Russian Ministry of Defense in Moscow has admitted that the ship Novocherkassk has been hit, but describes the whole thing as a Ukrainian “attempt” to attack and does not elaborate on the extent of the damage.
Novocherkassk is a 112 meter long ship in the Russian Black Sea Fleet that has been reported as damaged earlier in the war as well.