“Ukraine’s successes in the fight for the Black Sea will go down in the history books,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote last fall.
In total, about 20 percent of Russia’s Black Sea fleet has been destroyed, according to the head of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksii Danilov – an unexpected success for a country that technically lacks a navy of its own.
At the end of December they took their last scalp; landing ship Novocherkassk.
During the war against Ukraine, the Russian Black Sea Fleet has had three main tasks: amphibious assault, blockade of trade and attacking Ukraine with missiles. After Ukraine’s success, one can only carry out the latest one at the moment.
It writes Kyiv Independentwho spoke with Dmitry Gorenburg, senior researcher at the US-based Center for Naval Analyses.
With the help of the expert, and analyzes from, among others, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, the newspaper has mapped the seven most important Russian ships that Ukraine has so far managed to destroy:
The Saratov
The landing craft Saratov was one of the first really large ships that Russia lost during the invasion. Ukrainian forces reportedly sank it with a Soviet Tochka-U ballistic missile on March 24, 2022, while the ship was in occupied Berdiansk, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Saratov was commissioned in the 1960s and has previously been used during Russia’s operations in Syria and Georgia, as well as during the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The ship can carry up to 400 troops, plus 20 main battle tanks or 45 armored vehicles.
The Moscow
The missile cruiser Moskva was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and symbol of Russia’s naval power in the region, until it was sunk on 14 April 2022.
Ukraine said it hit the cruiser with two Neptune missiles, causing total losses of just over $750 million and an unknown number of casualties from its 500-person crew.
Moscow is also known as the ship that ordered Ukrainian marines to surrender on Ormön, to which they were told: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.”
The ship played a key role in Russia’s naval assault on Ukraine at the start of the 2022 invasion and the destruction of the Moscow is seen as the first major step in the elimination of Russia’s blockade of the Black Sea.
The Olenegorskiy Gornyak
The ship had a length of 113 meters and often transported military and civilian passengers between Russia and Crimea, when the Kerch Bridge was disrupted by Ukrainian attacks.
After the attacks in Crimea increased, Russia moved the Olenegorskiy Gornyak to the Krasnodar region, where it could still be hit by a Ukrainian naval drone, which had to travel at least 600 kilometers. The attack further impaired Russia’s ability to transport military equipment and conduct amphibious operations against Ukraine.
The innovative naval drones were developed by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and have been used against the Black Sea Fleet since October 2022. The attack showed that Russian ships are not safe even far from Ukrainian shores.
The Minsk and the Rostov-on-Don
The two ships were hit in Ukraine’s first successful missile attack on Sevastopol, in Crimea.
The Minsk is classified as a landing craft and the Rostov-on-Don was one of the Russian Navy’s total of four missile-capable submarines.
Ukraine is said to have used British Storm Shadow long-range missiles, which were later also used to hit the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol and other Russian military targets on the Crimean peninsula.
The Askold
Askold is described as a missile corvette, built with advanced “stealth” technology, and was destroyed even before it was put into service, after a Ukrainian attack on a shipyard at Kerch, in Crimea.
At least three Storm Shadow missiles are said to have hit the shipyard, located about six kilometers south of the Kerch Bridge, in November 2023.
Askold could carry up to eight Kalibr cruise missiles or Onik supersonic anti-ship missiles.
The Novocherkassk
Novocherkassk was built during the glory days of the Soviet Union and was designed for amphibious landings, but Russia used it mainly to transport troops and military equipment to the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, according to Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat.
Ukraine fired a cruise missile at the ship while it was moored off Feodosia in Crimea in December. According to Ukrainian military officials, a powerful secondary explosion suggests that the Novocherkassk was carrying explosives, the detonation of which rendered it useless.
The attack may have killed 74 Russian servicemen and wounded another 27 and marked the fourth amphibious assault ship destroyed by Ukraine since the start of the war, further straining Moscow’s military logistics.