The Ukrainian Navy announced on Tuesday that it had sunk a Russian coast guard patrol vessel in the Black Sea, near the city of Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar region, about 300 kilometers from the front line.
The Izumrud ship was hit by a Sargan-3000 maritime drone, and the attack resulted in casualties and injuries among the crew, the Ukrainian Navy specified, without providing further details.
The source cited by Kyiv Independent added that Izumrud had participated nearly eight years ago in Russia’s attack on three Ukrainian military ships in the Kerch Strait, an incident that, at the time, represented one of the most significant confrontations between the two sides, prior to the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in 2022.
On November 25, 2018, Russian forces opened fire and captured two armed Ukrainian patrol boats and a tugboat as they attempted to cross the Kerch Strait from Odesa to Mariupol. 24 Ukrainian sailors were taken prisoner then, later being released in a prisoner exchange conducted in 2019.
"Revenge is inevitable. More to follow," the Ukrainian Navy conveyed in a social media post following the sinking of the Russian ship.
Commissioned in 2014, Izumrud was a coast guard patrol vessel equipped with a helicopter landing platform. The ship had a length of about 62.5 meters, a displacement ranging from 630 to 750 tons, and a maximum speed of 27 knots (50 km/h) at sea, as specified by the Ukrainian Navy.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian army drone units hit another 11 Russian ships last night in the Sea of Azov.
In the past nine days, 116 Russian vessels have been targeted in attacks by Ukrainian forces.
T.D.