Russia Claims to Have "Destroyed" Ukrainian Landing Ship
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed Wednesday that it has "destroyed" Ukraine's last naval vessel, a Soviet-era landing ship. The claims could not immediately be verified.
On May 31, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that the landing ship Yuri Olefirenko had been struck by "precision" weapons at the port of Odesa. Ukraine has not confirmed or denied the attack, but it has reported a fire affecting port infrstructure as the result of a nighttime drone strike on May 28.
“A fire broke out in the port infrastructure of Odesa as a result of the hit. It was quickly extinguished. Information on the extent of the damage is being updated,” the Ukrainian military's southern command said in a statement on May 29.
Odesa's port is covered by Russian security guarantees under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a UN-backed agreement allowing Ukraine to export wheat, corn and other commodities from three seaports on the Black Sea. It has rarely been targeted by Russian forces since the signing of the accord last August.
The landing ship Yuri Olefirenko (ex name SDK 137) was built for the Soviet Navy in Gdansk, Poland in 1970, and she became part of the Ukrainian Navy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. She changed hands again briefly during the first Russian invasion in 2014, when her crew surrendered to the Russian military at Lake Donuzlav, Crimea; Russia returned her to Ukrainian custody the following month. After the handover, she was given her current name.
In April 2022, after the start of the second invasion, Russian media sources claimed that Yuri Olefirenko had been captured and sailed off to the port of Novorossiysk, on the other side of the Black Sea. The claims turned out to be incorrect, and the ship was photographed in Ukraine in June 2022.
New Videos Add Complexity to Claims of Drone Attack on Russian Warship
New videos released by Ukrainian and Russian sources appear to tell conflicting stories about whether the Russian Navy surveillance ship Ivan Khurs may have suffered damage in a drone-boat strike last week.
At 0530 hours last Wednesday morning, the Ukrainian armed forces attempted to attack the surveillance ship Ivan Khurs using three unmanned speedboats, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. The strike was not successful, and all three boats were destroyed by the Khurs' pedestal-mounted machine guns. The ministry released a video appearing to show a black drone boat approaching the camera at speed and attempting to evade a stream of machine gun fire. The small craft exploded before reaching target.
Later in the week, the Ukrainian defense ministry released a different video taken from the viewpoint of a drone. The attack craft appears to make for the Khurs' transom at speed, dodging machine gun fire as it closes in. The video cuts briefly, then shows the drone dashing in towards the ship's port quarter, where the video cuts out.
"When the Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs met a Ukrainian drone. Indeed, a perfect match!" said the ministry in a social media message accompanying the video.
The ministry also released a grainy, stop-motion video that (it claims) shows an explosion on the Khurs' port quarter.
While this might imply that the Khurs was hit, the Russian Black Sea Fleet followed up with "official" imagery purporting to show the ship arriving in Sevastopol under her own power, unharmed.
As with most disputed media releases from the war zone, determining the veracity of the footage and the facts of what happened that day will be difficult from social media releases alone. However, one organization may have a better view of the true events on the ground: The U.S. Air Force was operating a sophisticated Global Hawk surveillance aircraft in the vicinity of the attack, and the aircraft remained in the area for hours afterwards.
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