Ukraine’s military says it has attacked Russian ship off Crimea
Six years on from the day Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty of accession to absorb Crimea in the Russian Federation on March 18, 2020 in Sevastopol, Ukraine.
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Ukraine military intelligence said Tuesday that it used naval drones to attack a Russian ship off the coast of Crimea.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said special unit Group 13 had damaged the Russian Black Sea Fleet patrol ship, the “Sergey Kotov,” near Russian-occupied Crimea.
“The ‘Kotov’ was damaged by fire in the territorial waters of Ukraine, near the Kerch Strait,” the agency said on Telegram in comments translated by NBC. It said the cost of the sunken ship “is about 65 million dollars.”
“As a result of the strike by Magura V5 naval drones, the Russian ship of project 22160 “Sergei Kotov” suffered damage to the stern, right and left sides,” it added.
Apparently referencing the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram on Tuesday that “the Russian Black Sea Fleet is a symbol of occupation. It cannot be in the Ukrainian Crimea.”
CNBC was unable to immediately verify the reports.
Ukraine’s operations to attack Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were among its key successes in 2023, with drone and missile attacks on the Crimean port of Sevastopol forcing Russia to withdraw a number of its ships from its main base there.
— Holly Ellyatt
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Russian Foreign Ministry building is seen behind the Army billboard reading “Our Defenders! Thanks Native Ones!” in Moscow on June 15, 2023.
Alexander Nemenov | AFP | Getty Images
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