The Ukrainian military shared a video on Saturday purporting to show one of its drones destroying a Russian landing craft in the Black Sea.
“Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 destroyed another Russian ship,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence tweeted Thursday. “This time the landing craft of the ‘Serna’ project. The traditional parade of the russian Black Sea fleet on May 9 this year will be held near Snake Island – at the bottom of the sea.
The footage the Ukrainian military shared showed a strike on the Russian landing craft as well as strikes on other apparent Russian positions.
The Ukrainian military’s comment about the “traditional parade of the Russian Black Sea fleet” is in reference to Russia’s Victory Day celebrations held every year on May 9. Victory Day is Russia’s holiday commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and the end of fighting in the European theater of World War II.
The Ukrainian military’s tweet appears to indicate its drone struck the Russian Serna-class landing ship while the vessel was docked near Snake Island. The island, also known as Zmiiny Island, was the location where the Ukrainian military claimed its forces were killed after refusing to surrender to a Russian warship. While the Ukrainian side initially believed its forces defending Snake Island were all killed in a Russian bombardment, Russian forces later revealed they had captured the island’s defenders and released them in March as part of a prisoner exchange.
Last week, the Ukrainian military also shared footage purporting to show its Turkish-built Bayraktar TB-2 drones striking a pair of Russian Raptor-class patrol boats operating near Zmiiny island.
The Ukrainian military has touted numerous apparent successful strikes by its Bayraktar drones throughout the war with invading Russian forces.
While some social media users claimed Russian forces destroyed all of Ukraine’s Bayraktar drones in the opening hours of their invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian side has continued to attribute successful strikes against Russian forces to still-active Bayraktar drones.
Russian forces have seen other warships damaged and destroyed throughout its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In March, Ukrainian forces shared footage of the Russian amphibious transport dock ship Orsk burning at the Russian-occupied port city of Berdyansk.
The Russian side has also lost a Slava-class guided-missile cruiser known as Moskva (which means Moscow). Moskva had served as the flagship missile cruiser for Russia’s Black Sea fleet. The Russian side has said Moskva was damaged after a fire on board the ship caused an ammunition detonation. The Russian military said it was towing the damaged ship but said it sank in a heavy storm. The Ukrainian side, by contrast, claims it struck the Moskva with a pair of domestically-produced R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles.
