© AFP
The Russian warship that was hit by a Ukrainian missile attack on Tuesday has indeed been destroyed, new satellite images show. Moscow had previously stated that the ship was only “damaged”.
Thursday, December 28, 2023 at 2:20 PM
The Ukrainian army proudly announced on Tuesday that it had sunk a Russian warship. “Our pilots did a great job,” the Defense Department wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The ship Novocherkassk was destroyed last night in Feodosia. Crimea is Ukraine. There is no room for the occupying forces’ fleet.”
At the time of the missile attack, the Novocherkassk, a Russian landing ship reportedly loaded with Iranian Shahed drones, had been moored in the port of Feodosia in Crimea for some time. After the impact of the guided bombs, there was a second, heavy explosion, probably caused by the ammunition on board.
Moscow acknowledged that the ship had been “hit,” but tempered Ukrainian enthusiasm by saying that the ship was only “damaged.” However, satellite images from the American Maxar show that the Ukrainian version of the facts is correct. “We see the remains of the Russian landing ship in the port of Feodosia, smoking and largely underwater,” wrote The New York Times journalist Christiaan Triebert with the images on X. “For comparison: the first image dates from December 26, the second of December 5.”
© AFP