Audacious Ukrainian sea drone attack at Novorossiysk leaves Russian warship listing badly
A large Russian amphibious assault ship, the Olenegorsky Gornyak, is listing and appears to be in danger of sinking after a nighttime attack by Ukrainian sea drones near the Russian port city of Novorossiysk.
Russian authorities say the attack on Aug.4 was thwarted by their defenses, but grainy video of the actual attack on the ship provided to NV, apparently taken from a camera onboard an attacking sea drone, shows it racing up to the ship and apparently exploding on its port (left) side without being fired on or destroyed.
Later video and pictures of a large Russian amphibious assault ship, under tow and listing heavily to port, which may indicate the flooding of several compartments, were posted by several online media.
According to NV’s sources in Ukraine’s SBU security service, the attack on the Russian warship was a special operation of the SBU carried out together with Ukrainian Navy. The SBU told NV that the warship had been seriously damaged and was currently “unable to perform its combat tasks.”
Russian claims that all attacks by Ukrainian sea drones were repulsed are false, the SBU said.
About 100 crew members are on board the Russian warship. The Ukrainian sea drone was carrying a warhead of 450 kilograms of TNT, the SBU said.
In the wake of the attack on the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a large number of Russian warships have left port and are now dispersing on the Black Sea, Ukraine’s military has reported.
"The enemy is deploying a large naval grouping,” Nataliya Humenyuk, the head of the United Press Center of the South Operational Command, said on Ukrainian national television in the morning of Aug. 4
Read also: Russians unable to fully blockade Ukrainian ports – Navy spokesperson
“Indeed, a large number of ships, now 15 units, are in the Black Sea. One is usually based in Azov," Humenyuk said.
She said that the Russian Black Sea Fleet was trying to spread out its ships so that they were not concentrated in one place.
Meanwhile, military expert Mykhailo Zhirokhov has commented that the drones would have had to cover a considerable distance to reach Novorossiysk, which he called "a very nice target."
"Even if the range of use allows, it is not clear how they got to Novorossiysk, because in fact the coast of the Sea of Azov is now controlled by the Russians,” the military expert said.
He suggested that the drones could have been launched from territory not controlled by Ukraine.
"Maybe there is a (Ukrainian) agent near Berdyansk, or the fighters of some special unit came out and launched (the drone). ... Because it looks unbelievable (that the drone could) go around (the Russian coastal defenses) near Crimea, past the Kerch bridge, and get to Novorossiysk," Zhirokhov said.
Read also: What Russia could do in the Black Sea
The Russian Ministry of Defense early on Aug. 4 said that overnight the Russian naval base at Novorossiysk was attacked by "two Ukrainian unmanned boats," which were allegedly "visually detected, fired on and destroyed.”
Meanwhile In the port of Novorossiysk, a temporary ban on all shipping traffic has been imposed, oil company Caspian Pipeline Consortium or KTC said.
KPC owns an oil terminal near Novorossiysk. The company's press service stated that the terminal was not damaged and continues to load oil onto moored tankers.
However, local residents report that there was an explosion and fire at the KPC terminal, with videos and photographs of a fire and a plume of smoke over the port appearing online.
Novorossiysk seaport is one of the largest ports of the Black Sea, and of Russia.
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