In their war with Russia, Ukraine seems to have struck a significant blow against the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, as reported by the German news platform merkur.de.
According to a report by the US magazine Newsweek, the Ukrainian forces appear to have sunk a significant warship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which was located at the Zaliv shipyard in the city of Kerch at the far eastern end of Crimea, on Saturday, November 4. Satellite images suggest considerable damage. On the same day, Kyiv reported through the Telegram channel “Korrespondent” successful attacks on the ship and port infrastructure of the temporarily occupied city of Kerch, where the Zaliv shipyard is located.
On November 5, Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, a commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, also claimed on Telegram that “one of the most modern ships of the Russian Navy,” a carrier ship for Kalibr cruise missiles, was sunk. In the same post, a video was shared showing footage of the air strike and images of a port fire. The sunken ship is said to be the corvette “Askold,” which can allegedly carry up to eight Kalibr or Onyx type cruise missiles. Reports suggest it was hit by at least one Ukrainian cruise missile. However, satellite images provided of the Zaliv shipyard on November 5 and October 31 only show a heavily damaged ship, which is allegedly the “Askold.”
These claims have not been verified or confirmed by independent parties yet. Therefore, they should be regarded with caution. In war, it can be advantageous for conflict parties to deliberately spread false information to strengthen their own position or weaken that of the opponent.
Image: Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin (2022-09-05), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Image size changed)
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