Russian Black Sea Fleet Suffers Another Loss: Ukrainian Military Sinks Landing Ship Caesar Koenikov

Once again, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has lost one of its important ships. According to the Ukrainian army staff The landing ship Tsezar (Caesar) Koenikov was sunk early Wednesday morning after an attack with one or more naval drones.

The 112 meter long ship from the Ropoucha classes sailed just south of the town of Aloepka in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that has been occupied and annexed by Russia since 2014. Ukrainian military intelligence released images on Wednesday morning of the attack on the ship, filmed from the sea. A huge explosion can be seen. The attack is said to have been carried out by Ukrainian military intelligence and the navy. Moscow had not responded to the Ukrainian claims as of Wednesday morning.

The landing ship, built in the mid-1980s in the Polish port city of Gdansk, can be used for amphibious landings. This class of ships carries armored vehicles, but often also supplies and ammunition. The Koenikov would normally have a crew of 87, but it is not known how many people were on board when the ship was attacked. On images circulated online Russian rescue helicopters could be seen flying over the sea from Crimea, possibly searching for survivors.

Country without a navy

For a country that barely has a navy of its own, Ukraine has fought Russia’s Black Sea Fleet with remarkable success since its all-out invasion two years ago. The Koenikov is already the fourth Russian landing ship to be sunk. In December, the sister ship Novocherkassk was attacked in the Crimean port of Feodosia. That ship would also have been destroyed. In August, the landing ship Olenegorski Gornjak was severely damaged in an attack near the Russian port of Novorossiesk. Ukraine achieved its greatest success shortly after the invasion, when the fleet’s flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk in the middle of the Black Sea with a missile attack.

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Last year, Ukraine also carried out several successful attacks on Russian targets in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, where the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet is located. In September, a missile attack on the Sergo Ordzhonikidze shipyard destroyed, among other things, the submarine Rostov-on-Don, which was in dry dock. A month later, the fleet headquarters was destroyed by a cruise missile attack.

Securing trade routes

The Ukrainian attacks on the Black Sea Fleet and Russian naval infrastructure in and around Crimea serve multiple purposes. The Russians have been regularly carrying out rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities from ships around Crimea for two years.

In addition, Kyiv has managed to withdraw the Russian Black Sea Fleet so far from the Ukrainian mainland that Ukraine has been able to resume shipping traffic in the northwestern part of the Black Sea. These trade routes are crucial for the Ukrainian economy, especially for the transport of agricultural products such as grain. “Demilitarization of the Black Sea Fleet is the long-term guarantee of the security of regional trade routes,” said President Zelensky’s adviser Mikhaylo Podoljak last year about the strategy behind the Ukrainian attacks.

In recent months, Russia has moved more and more warships from Crimea to Russian ports such as Novorossiesk, more than three hundred kilometers east of Sevastopol.

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2024-02-14 10:04:17
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