In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian Air Force commander Mykola Oleshchuk thanked personnel involved in “the destruction of the Novocherkask 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.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the Novocherkask had been “damaged” in a Ukrainian attack in a statement reported by the state-run TASS news agency.
The Russia-appointed head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, earlier acknowledged via a statement that there had been “an enemy attack in [the] Feodosia area,” adding that “detonation has stopped and the fire has been localized.”
One person was killed and two injured in the Ukrainian strikes, Aksyonov said in an update on Telegram, though he did not mention the Novocherkask.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated his military Tuesday for striking the Russian warship.
“I am grateful to our Air Force for the spectacular replenishment of the Russian Black Sea submarine fleet with another vessel. There will be no peaceful place for the occupiers in Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a statement.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu “reported to [President Vladimir Putin] about the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attack on Feodosia and the damage to the large landing ship Novocherkask,” a statement released by the Kremlin said Tuesday.
According to a US military fact sheet on the Novocherkask and the other vessels in its Ropucha class, the 369-foot (112.5-meter) vessel displaces about 3,450 tons, making about the same size as a US Navy littoral combat ship.
