KYIV, Ukraine — In an audacious overnight attack, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian landing ship docked in the port of Feodosia in the contested Crimean Peninsula, potentially delivering a major blow against Russia’s already beleaguered Black Sea Fleet.
The Ukrainian military said its jets hit the Novocherkassk, a 370-foot amphibious assault ship capable of transporting tanks and hundreds of troops, around 2:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Images circulating on social media purportedly showed the vessel listing heavily and billowing smoke.
Russia confirmed the ship was damaged but claimed its air defenses shot down the incoming missiles. Independent verification of either side’s claims remained elusive.
If confirmed, the sinking or serious disabling of the Novocherkassk would mark Kyiv’s most significant naval victory since the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, was destroyed in April.
The attack demonstrates Ukraine’s willingness to bring the fight to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 and has controlled since. Ukrainian officials have vowed to retake the peninsula and all occupied territories.
This year will definitely go down in history as the year of Ukraine’s maritime victories,” said Andrii Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate.
Tuesday’s operation came amid fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, where Russia has refocused its offensive after failing to capture Kyiv early in the war.
Intense shelling continued around Bakhmut, a strategic city that Moscow’s forces have struggled to seize for months at great cost. Ukraine’s military reported repelling assaults north and south of Bakhmut.
Further demonstrating Russia’s intention to fully subjugate the Donbas, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Monday recognizing the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. The Kremlin proxy authorities there have asked to join Russia.
Analysts say absorbing Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists have fought Kyiv since 2014, remains a key war aim for Putin after his forces were turned back from the capital. He illegally annexed four partially occupied southern and eastern Ukraine regions in September.
Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian shelling over the past day killed at least three civilians and wounded seven. The region has seen some of the war’s heaviest fighting and destruction.
With Western arms continuing to flow into Ukraine, there is speculation Kyiv may launch a significant counteroffensive in the spring. The Kremlin’s forces still hold large swaths of southern and eastern Ukraine.
Both sides are believed to be taking high casualties, with independent verification difficult. Russia has mobilized some 300,000 reservists, though many are said to be poorly trained and equipped.
The naval attack in Crimea occurred as a Dutch court convicted two Russian men in absentia of murder for their role in the 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over eastern Ukraine, which killed all 298 people aboard.
Prosecutors say the defendants, who remain at large, helped supply the missile system that Russian-backed rebels used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Most of those killed were Dutch citizens.
The trial represented the only legal reckoning yet achieved over the approximately 14,000 lives lost in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. The devastating conflict began with Russia’s seizure of Crimea.
