CNN –
Satellite images showed heavy damage to the Russian tank landing ship Novocherkassk after Ukrainian attacks on a port in Crimea on Tuesday.
In images taken by Maxar, the ship is seen burned out and separated from the port, seemingly partially submerged, with smoke billowing from the vessel.
Ukraine claimed to have destroyed the ship in its attack on the port of Feodosia in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Moscow claimed the ship was “damaged.”
The image suggests a successful Ukrainian operation against the port when compared to an earlier image showing the ship before the attack.
Maxar
The image taken after the attack appears to show the Novocherkassk landing ship rising in smoke and partially submerged.
Maxar
For comparison, a picture before the attack shows Novocherkassk intact.
The number of those who may have been killed in the attack may become clearer over time as the peninsula is currently under Russian control, a Ukrainian navy spokesman said on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, this area is currently occupied and it is not easy to obtain relevant information. And I think that over time we will at least get approximate numbers [of casualties] from what happened in reality,” Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“Nevertheless, these ships usually do not remain without crew. And accordingly, even though it was in port at that time, a fairly large portion of the crew had to be on board, and the total crew there is about 80 people,” he said.
According to a US military fact sheet about the Novocherkassk and the other ships in its Ropucha class, the 112.5 meter long ship displaces about 3,450 tons, making it about the size of a US Navy littoral combat ship.
According to the US military, the Novocherkassk has a crew of around 87 men and can accommodate 237 soldiers. It was not known how many people may have been on board the suspected Ukrainian attack.
The ship is designed for beach landings and features bow and stern doors as well as the ability to accommodate up to 25 armored personnel carriers on its vehicle deck.
Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk, who said the ship was destroyed in a Telegram post after the attack, also claimed the ship was carrying Iranian-made Shahed attack drones.
He said the Novocherkassk “followed” the Moskva, the guided-missile cruiser that was the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet before it sank in April 2022 after a Ukrainian missile strike.
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The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said in a statement carried by state news agency TASS that the Novocherkassk had been “damaged” in a Ukrainian attack.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported the attack and damage in Novocherkask to President Vladimir Putin, TASS reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
According to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Crimea's health ministry said on Wednesday that one person died and four were injured in the attack.
CNN is unable to independently verify either side's claims, but videos posted on social media showed large explosions at the port of Feodosia.
If confirmed, the alleged destruction of Novocherkask would be the third major loss of Russian military equipment in less than a week. In September, Ukraine also claimed that the Novocherkask's sister ship, the Minsk, was destroyed in an attack on the Sevastopol naval base in Crimea.
The attack comes as Ukraine is encountering difficulties in its ground operations in the east of the country.
Ukraine's top general, Valery Zaluzhnyi, warned on Tuesday that the town of Avdiivka could suffer the same fate as the decimated town of Bakhmut in the next two to three months, as Ukrainian forces “now move to the outskirts” of the village after fighting Marinka had withdrawn with Russian troops.