Editor’s note: This is a developing story.
Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) said on Feb. 1 that its operatives sunk a Russian Tarantul-class Ivanovets missile corvette from the Black Sea Fleet overnight off of occupied Crimea.
Ukraine’s military intelligence released a video of a naval drone approaching a ship and an ensuing explosion.
The accompanying message said that the Ivanovets received “direct hits to its hull” and was irreparably damaged. The Ivanovets sunk afterward, the military intelligence said.
The Russian Tarantul-class Ivanovets missile corvette in a photo published on Oct. 21, 2016 (Russian Defense Ministry)
Ukraine’s military intelligence said that the ship costs approximately $60-70 million.
According to preliminary information, the military intelligence said that Russian search and rescue operations were unsuccessful.
The Ivanovets was involved in live-fire exercises in the Black Sea in July 2023 after Russia withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative and subsequently declared that all vessels sailing to Ukrainian ports would be considered military targets.
The alleged sinking of the Ivanovets comes just one month after the Russian landing ship Novocherkassk was hit by Ukrainian missiles while docked at Feodosia in occupied Crimea.
The strike “completely destroyed” the vessel, the U.K. Defense Ministry said.
Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, including the sinking of the flagship cruiser Moskva in April 2022 and a devastating missile attack on the fleet’s headquarters in occupied Crimea in September 2023 that reportedly killed more than 30 officers.
Read also: These are the most important Russian ships destroyed by Ukraine
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