This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian military in the southwestern Odesa region said on May 12 that a strike by Ukrainian naval forces damaged a Russian logistics ship in the Black Sea.
The claim could not be independently verified, and there has been no confirmation by the Russian side of damage to any of its naval vessels in the Black Sea.
Ukrinform, the Ukrainian national news agency, quoted Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the regional military command that includes Odesa, as saying in a Telegram post that the ship had been set on fire.
The agency reported that the Russian Navy had “lost” the Vsevolod Bobrov in the purported strike off Snake Island.
The FleetMon sea-tracking news website identifies the Vsevolod Bobrov as a 95-meter-long transport ship.
In April, Russian officials dismissed Kyiv’s claim that Ukrainian forces had damaged the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet flagship, Moskva.
But they later reported that the Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser that saw duty off Georgia, Crimea, and Syria, had sunk while being towed for repairs.
