Ukraine’s military has claimed it sank a Russian submarine in a port in Crimea, in what would be another major setback for Moscow in the occupied peninsula.
The submarine Rostov-on-Don was hit in the port of Sevastopol last Friday, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a statement.
“The boat sank on the spot,” the General Staff said, without providing further evidence.
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If confirmed, the sinking would be Ukraine’s latest blow to Russia’s navy, which Kyiv claims has already lost a third of its Black Sea Fleet.
CNN is not able to independently verify the claim, and the Russian Defence Ministry has not commented on the alleged attack.
The alleged loss of the Rostov-on-Don “proves once again that there is no safe place for the Russian fleet in Ukrainian territorial waters of the Black Sea,” the General Staff said.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry hailed the attack, saying in a post on social media that “a Russian submarine went to the bottom of the Black Sea” after it was attacked in Sevastopol’s port. “As a result of the attack, the submarine sank. Great work, warriors.”
Russia has occupied Crimea since its forces annexed the peninsula in 2014. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine more than two years ago, it has come under sporadic attack from Kyiv’s forces.
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The Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said submarine defence exercises were taking place on Saturday, and “everything is calm in the city.”
On a post on Saturday, Russian military blogger Boris Rozhin said the ship repair plant in Sevastopol, where the submarine was docked, appears to have been hit.
Commissioned in 2014, the Rostov-on-Don is a 73.8-metre Kilo II-class submarine and carries a crew of 52. With a submerged displacement of about 3100 tonnes, the diesel-electric-powered vessel can carry Kalibr cruise missiles.
Taking out Russian assets armed with Kalibr missiles is an important part of Kyiv’s military strategy because Russia has used Kalibr and missiles like it to attack vital Ukrainian infrastructure such as power plants, said Cedric Leighton, a CNN military analyst.
“Hitting this submarine is a big, big deal,” Leighton said.
More than 20 Russian naval vessels have now been disabled or destroyed, a third of the entire fleet. Though Ukraine has virtually no navy of its own, technological innovation, audacity and Russian incompetence have given it the upper hand in much of the Black Sea.
Russia’s worst naval loss of the war was the sinking of the guided-missile cruiser Moskva in April 2022.
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