Ukraine destroys at least six Russian Black Sea Fleet ships and boats in 2023 - Navy

Captain Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, shared the information in a comment for Ukrinform.

This pertains to the elimination of the large landing ships Minsk and Novocherkassk.

No less important, according to the spokesman, is the destruction of the Rostov-na-Donu diesel-electric submarine, which, like the Minsk, was hit in the dry dock of the Sevastopol Naval Shipyard. According to Pletenchuk, its restoration would be too expensive and inexpedient.

Several units of Tuna-type boats were also destroyed along with their personnel.

"No less important is the destruction of a small missile ship of the Karakurt project, called Askold. It was hit at the Zalyv plant in Kerch. Now it has been lifted out of the water and onto a pier, and they are likely trying to figure out whether it is worth restoring. This marks one of the five anticipated small missile ships from this project, originally intended for assignment to the Russian Black Sea Fleet," Pletenchuk said.

The damaged boats include the Serna or Akula landing craft, which is an older project, and some other boats, the spokesman added.

Answering the question about the number of personnel eliminated, Pletenchuk noted that it was hundreds of Russian servicemen, as there were 500 people on the Moskva cruiser alone. The smallest number of crew was on the Tuna boats - up to 10 servicement. In total, the number of the eliminated sailors may reach 700, but there is no confirmed information on this, Pletenchuk said.

• On the night of December 26, 2023, residents of Feodosia in Russian-occupied Crimea reported loud explosions over the city. Subsequently, the head of the Ukrainian Air Force, Mykola Oleshchuk, confirmed the information about the destruction of the large landing ship Novocherkassk.
• The Air Force also reported that the large landing ship Novocherkassk was attacked by cruise missiles from tactical aircraft around 2:30 a.m. The Air Force reported it as destroyed.
• The spokeswoman for the Southern Defense Forces, Natalia Humeniuk, said on the United News telethon that the large detonation was caused not just by fuel or ammunition from the ship itself, but probably by the cargo on board.