HISTORY

The Russian ship Saratov burns in the port of Berdyansk on March 24. The other two landing craft are sailing away from her in a hurry.

Missile attacks

Besides the air attacks on the front line

targets the Russians also fire the missiles with the long range against the targets

all over the Ukrainian territory. During the

week starting Friday March 25 their targets were fuel storages. In this manner the

Russians tried to deprive the Ukrainian

army of the fuel and thus hamper the transfer of the troops to the east before the Donbas offensive they were preparing. In April

the railway stations in Donbas were shelled

by rockets with the same mission - to prevent the transfer of the Ukrainian reinforcements. At the limited scale Ukraine also

attempts the rocket counter attacks. Their

repeated target for example was Chornobaivka airport near Kherson. In the first

half of March, during two attacks, at least 16

Russian helicopters of various types were

destroyed. Remaining helicopters retreated while the damaged aircraft were towed

away by trucks with their rotors removed.

The Russians however maintained the garrison there with the large number of vehicles which became the target of at least

15 further attacks on April 14. According to

the Ukrainians besides the destroyed vehicles the Russians lost the ammunition

storage and two Russian generals lost their

lives. Russians did not confirm their death.

The occupied port of Berdjansk at the coast of Azov Sea also became the target of

a rocket attack. In the end of March, the

Russians media published the propaganda footage where the armored vehicles

were being off loaded from the ships to

reinforce the attack on Mariupol. Off course the Ukrainians saw the videos as well

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INFO Eduard

and knew precisely where to attack. They

deployed Tochka-U missiles which are

rather inaccurate. The pier was hit by at

least four missiles but caused no damage

to the ships on anchor. Shortly after, on

March 24 however there was an explosion

on one of the landing ships. It was a vessel

of the Aligator class later identified as Saratov. The wreck was burning and exploding

for several hours and sank to the bottom of

the port. Saratov was 113 meters long and

its displacement was 4,500 tons. Its capacity was 300-400 troops and 20 tanks or 40

armored vehicles or other cargo up to 1,000

tons. Besides Saratov the flames reached

and damaged other two landing vessels

class Bullfrog, later identified as Novocherkassk and Cezar Kunikov. The Ukrainian side immediately claimed that this explosion was caused by rocket Tochka-U as

well but owing to the missile’s inaccuracy

this is rather improbable. The explosion and

ship destruction can be more attributed to

the Russian carelessness in handling the

ammunition.

End of the flagship

Thirteen proved to be an unlucky number

for the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship. On

April 13 night the fire erupted on board of

the cruiser Moskva followed by the ammunition explosions after which the ship sank

on the next day. It was the largest ship in

the world lost in combat since WWII. The

chain of events described by Ukrainian and

Russian sides logically differ.

The Ukrainians claim that as bait they used

Bayraktar drones. Those drew the attention

of the cruiser’s radar operators. While the

Russian sailors were monitoring the drones

the Ukrainians launched two R-360 Neptun

cruise missiles. Those flew low above the

rough seas and the cruiser’s crew did not

notice them on time. Their hits supposedly

The Moskva cruiser in its glory days.

May 2022