The General Staff has confirmed the destruction of the Russian dock landing ship Caesar Kunikov. At the time of the attack, it was in Ukrainian territorial waters near Alupka. The message was published on the official channel of the General Staff.
"The Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, destroyed a large landing ship of the occupiers - Caesar Kunikov," the statement reads.
In the morning, local publics posted a video of a fire on the ship at sea. Eyewitnesses reported that explosions were heard in several Crimean settlements. The Russians sent another vessel to help the injured crew.
Later, the media reported, citing the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, that the scouts had hit the large landing ship Caesar Kunikov with drones. The ship went down.
The Caesar Kunikov large landing ship is one of the Russian Project 755 vessels. In addition to it, the Russians had three other such ships in the Black Sea Fleet, Radio Liberty wrote. The defence forces damaged it in the spring of 2022 in the port of Berdyansk, but the ship was restored.
Before the attack on Ukraine, Caesar took part in the aggression against Georgia. It was one of the two LSDs that took part in the Georgian-Russian battle in the Black Sea in 2008.