A UKRAINIAN missile is believed to have hit Putin’s oldest naval ship, in a major blow to Russian forces in Crimea.
Footage showed flames and smoke billowing from the 112-year-old warship in the occupied port of Sevastopol this morning.
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Explosions hit the area as the Russians were forced to issue a missile warning and close Putin’s prized Crimean bridge.
Firefighters reportedly rushed to the port to put out the fire.
A caption beneath the dramatic video, shared by Astra on Telegram, read: “The rocket hit the ship. Look, it’s burning.”
The ship struck by Ukraine is believed to be the Kommuna, the world’s oldest navy ship and a prized member of Putin’s Black Sea fleet.
First launched in 1913, it is an impressive target for Ukrainian forces after surviving two world wars.
The Russian governor of the occupied region, Mikhail Razvozhayev, was forced to admit that an anti-ship missile had been launched, causing a fire.
He claimed it was “quickly extinguished”, but Ukrainian attacks on Russian Black Sea vessels have been highly successful in recent months.
To such an extent that Russia has even withdrawn almost all of its major ships from the ports of occupied Crimea.
One media outlet said that a Ukrainian anti-ship attack Neptune had damaged the ship, prompting Russia to claim that the missile was shot down and that the resulting debris had caused the minor fire.
The Kommuna was apparently preparing to rescue Putin’s beloved sunken warship Moskva.
An open source intelligence analyst said he was probably “carrying a deep-diving submersible.”
The flagship was shot down by a Ukrainian missile attack in April 2022, marking a serious and early indicator of Vlad’s failures in the Black Sea in the face of impressive attacks by Kiev forces.
Ukraine’s efforts have become increasingly creative as they take impressive chunks away from the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
By combining powerful missiles like the one used here, with kamikaze sea drones, Zelensky’s army has impressively weakened Vlad’s beloved warships.
Security experts have said that Ukraine’s smart and aggressive approach has effectively eroded the Russian fleet, much as they have eroded the tanks on the front lines.
Ukraine has used a combination of conventional missile strikes combined with more ambitious marine drone strikes.
In response to the sustained attacks, Russia has moved part of its fleet of warships to Novorossiysk in the south, away from ports such as Odessa in Ukraine and Sevastopol in Crimea.
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