After Successful Ukrainian Attacks, Russian Black Sea Fleet Becomes 'Functionally Inactive'
Today, the Ukrainian Defence Forces attacked the ship Konstantin Olshansky, stolen by Russian invaders in 2014 during the occupation of Crimea, with a Neptune missile. This was announced by the spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, Dmytro Pletenchuk, on the air of the United News telethon, Ukrinform reports.
"Unfortunately, it was decided to strike this unit. We have no choice. The Ukrainian Neptune was used, and the damage was worked out," Pletenchuk said.
According to him, this ship stood in the bay for 9 years and the Russian invaders began to dismantle it for spare parts, and on the 10th year of the war they realised that they were running out of large landing ships, so it was restored within a year.
But as of today, the ship is inoperable, Pletenchuk said.
As a reminder, in addition to the two Russian ships Yamal and Azov that struck the Ukrainian Defence Forces on 23 March, information about the defeat of the Russian medium-sized reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs was confirmed. These Russian ships will not be able to carry out combat missions in the near future.
The Ukrainian Defence Forces also hit several military infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian city of Sevastopol.
Afterwards, UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said that Russia's Black Sea Fleet was "functionally inactive" after several attacks by Ukraine.
"Putin's ongoing illegal occupation of Ukraine is taking a huge toll on Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is now functionally inactive. Russia has been sailing the Black Sea since 1783, but now it is forced to limit its fleet to ports. And even there, Putin's ships are sinking!" said Grant Shapps.
Satellite imagery clearly shows that the Russian fleet command post in Sevastopol has been destroyed.
Later, the Russian authorities in occupied Ukrainian Crimea also confirmed that a large-scale Ukrainian attack took place over the peninsula on Saturday night.
According to the British newspaper, TThe Telegraph, the Black Sea Fleet has already lost a quarter of its ships since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.