The Russian authorities have assured this Wednesday that they have destroyed “the last warship” that the Ukrainian Navy had during an attack carried out on Monday against the port of Odessalocated in the south of the country, within the framework of the invasion unleashed in February 2022.
“On May 29, as a result of a high-precision weapon attack by the Russian Aerospace Forces on a warship anchorage point in the port of Odessa, the last warship of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, the “Yuriy Olefirenko“It was destroyed,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
The Ukrainian authorities have not yet ruled on Moscow’s claims about “Yuri Olefirenko”.
He “Yuri Olefirenko” is a Polnocny-C class landing ship built in Poland in 1970 that served with the Soviet Navy during the Cold War. It was transferred to the Ukrainian Navy in 1994, but was later taken over by the Russian Navy when Crimea was annexed by Moscow in 2014. It later reverted back to the Ukrainian Navy.
Outnumbered and outgunned, the Ukrainian Navy at the start of the war was very small and largely dispersed. Its largest ship, the frigate “Hetman Sahaidachny”, was purposely scuttled by the Ukrainian crew itself in its territorial waters to prevent it from falling into Russian hands. Several Ukrainian ships were also captured by the Russians in the Azov Sea, such as the Gyurza-M gunboats.
Although the Ukrainian navy has barely played a significant role in the conflict, some of its ships have starred in notable episodes, such as “Yuri Olefirenk” itself when it narrowly escaped an artillery bombardment on June 3, as he recalls. the analyst
With information from Europa Press
