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Ukraine said Tuesday it had destroyed a large Russian landing ship docked in a Crimean port in an overnight attack — potentially striking a major blow against Russia’s already damaged Black Sea Fleet.
Russian officials confirmed the attack but said only that the ship and some surrounding buildings had been damaged. The Washington Post could not independently confirm the scale of the damage.
The Ukrainian Air Force said on its Telegram channel that it attacked the port of Feodosia around 2:30 a.m. local time. The port is in eastern Crimea, the contested peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014 and has occupied since.
Ukraine has launched a series of air attacks on Russian ships and ports in Crimea and the Black Sea throughout the war, seeking to make it harder for Russia to move troops and arms around the region and aiming to score high-profile victories through the sinking of powerful and expensive ships.
In April 2022, Ukraine sank the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva missile cruiser, giving a major morale boost to the Ukrainian army two months into the war.
The 370-foot-long ship that Ukraine claimed to have sunk on Tuesday, the Novocherkassk, is designed to land troops and vehicles during amphibious assaults. It can carry 10 tanks and 340 personnel. The ship’s regular crew is 87 people. Ukraine’s military had previously claimed to have damaged it in May during another attack.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it shot down two Ukrainian SU-24 jets that had launched missiles at the port. A spokesman for Ukraine’s air force denied the claim in an interview with Radio Liberty, pointing out Russian officials often say planes have been shot down when they haven’t been.
Ukraine’s largely Soviet-era air force has been strained throughout the conflict. NATO governments including Holland and Denmark have said they will supply U.S.-made F-16 jets to Ukraine, but pilots are still being trained to fly the planes.
Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.