Ukraine claimed on Tuesday to have carried out an airstrike in Crimea that destroyed a Russian Navy tank landing ship in what would be, if confirmed, the third instance of major losses of Russian military hardware in less than a week. In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk thanked personnel involved in "the destruction of the Novocherkassk large landing ship" while it was in the port of Feodosia in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. CNN cannot independently verify the claim, but videos posted on social media showed large explosions in the Feodosia port. Russia has confirmed one of its warships has been "damaged" in a Ukrainian attack on a Black Sea port. The airstrike took place at Feodosiya in Russian-occupied Crimea early on Tuesday morning. Russia's Ministry of Defense said the large landing ship was struck by Ukrainian aircraft carrying guided missiles. One person was killed in the attack, according to the Russian-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov. Several others were reportedly hurt. Six buildings were damaged and a small number of people had to be taken to temporary accommodation centres, Aksyonov added. The port's transport operations are said to be functioning as normal after the area was cordoned off, while a fire caused by the attack was contained. Footage purportedly showing a huge explosion in the port was shared by Ukrainian air force commander Lt Gen Mykola Oleshchuk. The images have not been independently verified, however satellite imagery from 24 December shows a ship at port in Feodosiya that appears to be the same length as the Novocherkassk. Tuesday's attack is not the first time that the Novocherkassk has been targeted by Ukrainian forces. In March 2022, Ukraine's defence ministry reported that the ship had been damaged in an attack on the occupied Ukrainian port of Berdyansk in which another amphibious assault ship, the Saratov, was sunk. In a post on Telegram, Lt Gen Oleshchuk wrote that the Novocherkassk had gone the way of the Moskva - the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which sank in the Black Sea last year. Russia seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and its forces based there played a key part in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian forces in Crimea have since come under repeated Ukrainian attack. Last month, Ukraine's military said it had destroyed 15 Russian navy ships and damaged another 12 in the Black Sea since the start of Russia's war. After a missile strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol last September, satellite images showed that the Russian navy had moved much of its Black Sea fleet away from Crimea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. — Agencies
