Most of the crew of the Russian ship sunk by Kiev died

According to the Ukrainian military intelligence services (GUR), the Russian Black Sea Fleet ship, which Ukraine claims sank during a special operation, was loaded with weapons and had crew members on board, most of whom did not survive.

The second statement from the Main Intelligence Directorate states that the landing ship stood for ten days near a special quay wall from which the Russians “load ships with weapons and military equipment.”

According to a preliminary visual assessment of the operation, the ship “was loaded while flooding.”

GUR representative Andrey Yusov also told Channel 24 of Ukrainian television that “most of the crew of the destroyed Caesar Kunikov died,” adding that “the ship sank and cannot be restored.”

A few hours earlier, the Ukrainian military intelligence services had already indicated in their first statement that “the search and rescue operation for the occupiers [russos] was not successful.”

The ship was one of the newest in the Russian fleet and had a capacity for 87 crew members, according to the Main Intelligence Directorate, an agency of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, which did not provide details on the number of people on board at the time of the incident. attack.

Ukrainian military intelligence services said that the Caesar Kunikov was attacked by Ukrainian naval “drones” (unmanned vehicles) Magura V5 during an operation by the 13th Special Forces Group of the Main Intelligence Directorate.

As a result of the attack, the ship received significant holes on the port side and began to sink.

The Main Intelligence Directorate also reported that Russia confirmed the sinking through radio communications from pilots who flew helicopters over the area to inspect it.

In this intercepted message, the pilots allegedly reported seeing only “debris and fuel stains.”

On Wednesday morning, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “the Ukrainians managed to inflict major losses on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea” in an operation he called “a great success.”

The Russian warship was destroyed in territorial waters that legally belong to Ukraine, near Alupka, in the south of the occupied Crimean peninsula.

Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmitry Pletchenchuk told Radio Liberty that only five of the 13 ships in the Russian fleet remain in service in the Black Sea.

The ship, sunk by the GUR and the Ukrainian armed forces, was used by Russia in the wars in Ukraine, Syria and Georgia, Kyiv military intelligence added.

Since the start of the war, Russia has lost a third of its Black Sea Fleet to Ukrainian drone or missile attacks, according to the Ukrainian military.