Vladimir Putin’s last naval patrol ship based in annexed Crimea has “bolted” after sustained attacks on the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Ukraine is claiming.
The fleet has been headquartered in Sevastopol on the peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014.
But Ukraine has heavily targeted the naval base and ships, sinking several of them, with drones and missiles, some of them reportedly Storm Shadows supplied by Britain.
Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, Ukraine’s navy chief, said earlier this month that Russia had been forced to rebase nearly all its combat-ready warships from occupied Crimea.
“The last patrol ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation is bolting from our Crimea just now. Remember this day,” Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said on Facebook.
Asked to clarify whether this was a permanent move, he stressed: “Most likely, this is a transition between bases”, adding that Moscow did not usually send ships to the open sea for no reason.
He said the vessel’s designation was Project 1135.
Kyiv has destroyed or damaged 27 Russian naval vessels, Vice-Admiral Neizhpapa stated, although this could not be independently verified.
In May, Ukrainian authorities said they had destroyed the last Russian warship armed with cruise missiles that was stationed on the peninsula.
Putin told navy chiefs last month that Russia’s fleet had been replenished over recent years and that a major modernisation was under way, including steps to “increase the combat stability of the fleet” and strengthen it.
Moscow’s setbacks in the Black Sea come at a time when Ukrainian ground troops are on the back foot across a sprawling front and in particular in the east.
This was partly caused by a shortage of munitions as Republicans in Washington blocked a new aid package for Kyiv.
America, Britain and other allies have now stepped up military support for Ukraine, and at a Nato summit in Washington new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stressed that this backing was for the long term.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said the first F-16 fighter jets from the West will arrive in his country within weeks but stressed it needed more of these aircraft.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had taken control of the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which if confirmed would be the latest in a series of gains since capturing the strategic town of Avdiivka in February.
Ukrainian bloggers said that Kyiv’s forces had relinquished control of the village, southwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.
Ukraine’s military said fighting was still going on in the area.
“As a result of successful actions, the ‘east’ group of forces has taken control of the locality of Urozhaine in Donetsk region...and are carrying out mopping-up and demining operations,” the Russian Defence Ministry said.
The village came under Russian control early in the February 2022 invasion, but Ukraine retook the settlement near the Mokri Yaly river in July 2023.
The operation was part of Ukraine’s counter-offensive in southern and eastern areas along the 600-mile front line that made only limited headway.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, in a Sunday morning report, said only that Russia had launched 18 attacks on Urozhaine and other nearby localities. It made no mention of the village in a late afternoon report.
British defence chiefs say Russian casualties, killed and wounded in action, increased in May to a daily average of 1,262, and in June to 1,163, as Putin’s army chiefs threw troops into attacks in the Kharkiv area, north east Ukraine, as well as continuing their offensive along the frontline further south.
“In total, Russia likely lost (killed and wounded) in excess of 70,000 personnel over the past two months,” said the Ministry of Defence in London.
Ukrainian forces are also believed to be suffering heavy casualties.
DeepState, a popular Ukrainian military blog, reported Urozhaine’s capture on Sunday, saying Russian forces had launched “mass assaults on the south of the village”.
It described the loss as a “defence collapse” whose cause would have to be investigated.
