- In over two years, Ukrainian forces have devastated Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
- In lieu of warships, Ukraine uses unmanned drones and anti-ship missiles to thwart Russia’s navy.
- The barrage of attacks forced Russia to shift warships away from a prized naval base in Crimea.
Ukraine has inflicted significant damage on the Russian Black Sea Fleet, wrecking many Russian vessels in over two years of war.
Since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Ukrainians have destroyed or damaged roughly half of the Russian fleet’s warships, including one submarine, per publicly available information.
Without warships of its own, Ukrainian forces have relied on unmanned maritime drones and long-range anti-ship missiles to hammer Russia’s naval forces.
Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesman for the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in a public statement in February that the Russian Navy had about 80 warships at the outset of the war, including large warships, landing ships, submarines, patrol boats, and minesweepers.
“I can say that the Black Sea fleet operations have been greatly complicated, if not paralyzed,” Pletenchuk said at the time.
The attacks have allowed Ukraine to resume grain shipments through the Black Sea, which is central to its economy, and forced the Black Sea Fleet to shift warships away from its prized naval homeport in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula.
Several Russian ships that Ukraine claimed to have destroyed have yet to be fully identified, but reportedly among them are Raptor-class patrol boats, a BK-16 high-speed assault boat, Serna-class and Akula-class landing craft, and a Stenka-class patrol vessel.
Here are the Russian warships known to have been sunk or taken out of the fightÂover the past two years.
Commissioned in 1968, the Saratov was a large Alligator-class amphibious landing ship in the Black Sea Fleet. It was reactivated to transport supplies and support the Russian military operations in Syria.
The ship was able to carry about 400 troops, as well as 20 main battle tanks or 45 armored vehicles.
While the warship was docked in occupied Berdiansk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast on March 24, 2022, Ukrainian forces reportedly sank it with a Soviet Tochka-U short-range ballistic missile.
Video of the incident appears to show fire erupting above the wreck of the ship near the port as other Russian warships sail to escape the flames.
In a significant blow, the Black Sea Fleet lost its flagship, the Moskva, a guided missile cruiser, when it was sunk on April 14, 2022. It marked the first time a Russian flagship was sunk by an enemy since the Russo-Japanese War in the early 1900s.
At the start of the invasion, the Moskva provided air cover for other Russian warships and aided in capturing Snake Island in late February 2022.
Ukraine said it struck the cruiser with long-range Neptune missiles launched from shore.
The Vasily Bekh, a Russian rescue tugboat, joined the Black Sea Fleet in 2017, to provide emergency rescue, tow ships, evacuate maritime crews, and conduct diving operations and survey work. The Russian tugboat was also used to transport ammunition, weapons, and personnel to Snake Island.
But the Russian rescue tug’s time in the fleet ended on June 17, 2022. Ukrainian forces said that they struck and “successfully demilitarized” the Vasily Bekh with two Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The attack marked the first time that Ukraine hit a Russian vessel with Western-supplied anti-ship weapons.
The Russian minesweeper Ivan Golubets was reportedly damaged in a “massive attack” on Sevastopol, a key Russian port on the Crimean peninsula.
On October 29, Ukrainian forces launched nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven naval drones, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russia claimed the minesweeper only sustained “minor damage,” but a senior Ukrainian official told The New York Times that it appears the ship was critically damaged — possibly beyond repair.
Internal Russian reports detailed damage to the Ivan’s hull, Forbes reported. Video footage posted to social media by Anton Gerashchenko, then an advisor to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, captured explosions lighting up the dark sky in Sevastopol harbor.
The Ropucha-class tank landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak was designed to quickly unload cargo and transport amphibious forces to land. At 360 feet long, Ropucha-class warships can land up to 10 battle tanks and carry up to 350 troops.
On August 4, 2023, the Russian warship was left badly damaged after it was struck by a Ukrainian sea drone armed with explosives — the first of many ships to fall to attack drones that could reach warships out of missile range. Russia acknowledged the attack but claimed that the Olenegorskiy Gornyak was left unharmed. Video footage of the attack suggested otherwise, though.
In the video, the sea drone can be seen zooming toward the landing ship and slamming into the side of it before the feed cuts off after detonating. In the aftermath, the ship was seen listing dangerously in the water.
A little over a month later, another Ropucha-class landing vessel was struck on September 13, 2023, while in dry-dock undergoing maintenance at the Sevmorzadov shipyard in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Open-source imagery of the aftermath showed that the Minsk had “almost certainly been functionally destroyed,” the UK Ministry of Defense said. A month later, satellite imagery reportedly showed the Minsk had been dismantled.
“The Minsk may be disassembled for spare parts, if there are any left there at all,” Ukrainian Navy spokesman Pletenchuk said.
Along with the Minsk, the improved Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don also “suffered catastrophic damage,” the UK Defense Ministry said in an intelligence report. The submarine was also undergoing repairs at the Sevmorzadov shipyard when the Ukrainians attacked.
“Any effort to return the submarine to service is likely to take many years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars,” the ministry continued.
China’s Coast Guard has claimed that a Philippine vessel, which ignored repeated warnings, deliberately collided with a Chinese ship in an unprofessional and dangerous manner, reports Reuters.
In a statement, China’s maritime security agency reported that the same Philippine vessel entered waters near the Second Thomas Shoal after being prevented from entering the Sabina Shoal waters.
According to a China Coast Guard spokesperson, two Philippine Coast Guard ships illegally intruded into waters adjacent to the Sabina Shoal without permission on Monday morning.
“The Philippines has repeatedly provoked and caused trouble, violated the temporary arrangements between China and the Philippines,” Gan said, referring to the Philippines’ supply missions to a vessel grounded on Second Thomas Shoal.
The China Coast Guard stated that it took control measures against the Philippine ships according to the law during the incidents early Monday and called on the Philippines to immediately cease violations and provocations or face all consequences.
The Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson did not respond to the agency’s request for comment.
Agreement on disputed waters
China and the Philippines reached a temporary agreement in July following repeated disputes over the Second Thomas Shoal. Western countries have sharply criticized China for its aggression, which has obstructed the Philippines’ attempts to resupply its military personnel stationed aboard a naval ship at the shoal.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, including both shoals, rejecting the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which found that Beijing’s expansive claims have no legal basis under international law.
