(Reuters) – The Russian navy’s Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship was damaged during a sea drone attack conducted by Ukraine’s SBU security agency and navy near the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Friday, a Ukrainian intelligence source said.
“As a result of the attack, the Olenegorsky Gornyak received a serious breach and currently cannot conduct its combat missions,” the source told Reuters.
“All the Russian statements about a ‘repelled attack’ are fake,” the source said.
Russia’s defence ministry said earlier that Ukrainian sea drones had attacked a Russian navy base near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a major hub for Russian exports, and were destroyed by Russian warships.
The source shared a grainy video that looked like it had been shot from the top of a maritime drone that sails right up to the side of a large vessel before the video abruptly cuts out and turns to pixels.
The video could not immediately be verified by Reuters.
Ukraine has repeatedly used sea drones packed with explosives to try to strike back at the Russian navy fleet that dominates the Black Sea and has allowed Moscow to prevent Ukraine exporting grain via its favoured export route.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Toby Chopra and Philippa Fletcher)
