Another Russian warship reportedly went up in flames today after an alleged Ukrainian missile attack.
Video showed a fire allegedly on a ship in Sevastopol’s Sukharnaya Bay after explosions were heard in the annexed Crimean naval port.
A report by Ukrainian Telegram channel Crimean Wind suggested that the world’s oldest active naval ship had been hit, the 109-year-old Kommuna, built during the reign of the last tsar, Nicholas II.
A 315-foot-long rescue ship, it was used during the current war when the Russian navy investigated the sinking of the fleet’s flagship, the Moskva, in 2022, according to accounts.
There was no official confirmation that the distinctive and historic Kommuna, commissioned in 1915, was hit, causing flames and smoke.
Sevastopol’s Putin-appointed governor admitted to a “small fire” after the port’s defenses repelled a missile, but did not mention the ship’s name.
Video showed a fire allegedly on a ship in Sevastopol’s Sukharnaya Bay after explosions were heard in the annexed Crimean naval port.
A report by Ukrainian Telegram channel Crimean Wind suggested that the world’s oldest active warship, the 109-year-old Kommuna, had been hit.
However, a pro-war Russian report on the PolitNavigator channel appeared to support the Kommuna fire version.
Another report suggested that a landing ship and another ship had been attacked.
The Putin-appointed governor of Sevastopol admitted to a “small fire” after the port’s defenses repelled an incoming missile, but did not name the ship.
The “falling fragments” caused the fire, which was “quickly extinguished,” said official Mikhail Razvozhaev.
Russian officials frequently blame falling fragments or debris for direct hits.
Some reports say two people were injured.
“Divers are now also examining the water area to rule out the presence of explosive elements near the pier,” a Telegram channel reported.
Putin has seen around a third of his Black Sea Fleet wiped out in the war, hit by kamikaze sea drone missiles, including several large landing ships.
The Kommuna, originally the Volkhov, has served in the navies of the Imperial, Soviet, and post-communist Russian Federation.
As a result, its navy has lost its ability to dominate the western parts of the Black Sea.
The Kommuna, originally the Volkhov, has served in the navies of the Imperial, Soviet, and post-communist Russian Federation.
The warship saw active service in two world wars, the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the country’s subsequent civil war, as well as the current conflict against Ukraine.
Some 96 years ago, in 1928, the Kommuna raised from a depth of 203 feet the British submarine HMS L55, which had been sunk in the Gulf of Finland by Bolshevik ships in 1919.
The Soviets used the designs as a prototype for their own Leninets-class submarines.