The Russian ship Olenegorsky Gornyak has been towed back to port after being struck near a key base of Moscow's Black Sea Fleet in what one expert has told Newsweek demonstrates the "growing capabilities of the Ukrainian forces."
Following the strike by Ukrainian drones, geolocated footage posted on Friday shows the vessel listing and a Russian support vessel towing it to Novorossiysk port in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, which is a major navy base and oil-exporting port east of Russian-occupied Crimea.
Olenegorsky Gornyak is a 3,600 tonne, 360 feet long landing ship which launches amphibious forces close to shore and can dock and quickly unload cargo.
British defense officials said on Saturday that the ship had been routinely assigned to Russia's Northern Fleet but has been used by the Black Sea Fleet since the start of President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It has frequently been used to ferry military and civilian traffic between Russia and occupied Crimea when the Kerch Bridge has been disrupted due to attacks.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense (MOD) said it was the largest Russian naval vessel seriously damaged or destroyed since the sinking of the cruiser Moskva on April 13, 2022, which dealt Russian forces a bloody nose early in the war.
The MOD update on Saturday described the strike as a "significant blow" to the Black Sea Fleet which had relocated most of its units to Novorossiysk due to the high threat to Sevastopol posed by Ukrainian strikes. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters that the strike was carried out by Ukraine's Security Service and its navy.
The full extent of the damage to Olenegorsky Gornyak is not yet known and Russian sources claimed that the damage was not critical and that the ship would be operational after it was repaired.
However, it follows a series of attacks targeting Russian infrastructure in Crimea and along the Black Sea coast in recent days, raising questions about Moscow's ability to defend its Black Sea fleet and ports.
Martin Devenish, head of corporate intelligence at security consultancy S-RM, said that the attack, and the recent strike on Crimea's Kerch Bridge as well as drone attacks on Moscow "demonstrate the growing capabilities of Ukrainian forces, owing in large part to the western supply of advanced weaponry now integrated into the Ukrainian military."
"The broader impacts of these attacks on strategically significant targets are already tempered by efforts, predominantly from Western countries, to isolate the Russian economy," he told Newsweek.
"We can expect Russia to respond with further rhetoric and propaganda, playing down the damage of any strikes, while simultaneously reiterating its justification for continued military operations to eliminate the 'threat' from Kyiv.
"Russian retaliation via the usual drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, as happened after the Kerch bridge attack in May, is also likely," he added.
On Saturday, a Russian tanker was hit by Ukrainian drones in the Kerch Strait, briefly halting traffic on the bridge linking Crimea to Russia, Russian media reported. The vessel was the chemical tanker SIG, according to The Moscow Times.
