Russia employed submarine to launch missiles at Ukraine for second time in six months

Photo: spokesman of the Naval Forces of Ukraine Dmytro Pletenchuk (facebook.com/talkberry)

The Russian Federation has once again used a submarine to attack the territory of Ukraine, marking the second such incident in six months, reported the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Navy, Dmytro Pletenchuk.

According to him, there are currently no Russian ships at sea. However, the enemy continues to seek ways to deploy cruise missile carriers.

“There is a verified case of using a submarine. It seems that the day before yesterday (April 8th), they used a submarine to launch missiles. And this is the second verified case in just over half a year. They are exploring how to implement their potential given the dangers they already face in the Black Sea,” he said.

He noted that Russia has three submarines capable of launching cruise missiles, but that does not mean they are all at sea.

As of April 7th, Russia had not deployed its ships in the Black Sea waters.

Damage to Russian Black Sea Fleet ships

Earlier, on March 24th, the Strategic Communications Department of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that Defense Forces had struck objects belonging to Russian occupiers in Sevastopol. Two Russian landing ships and a communication center were destroyed.

Ukrainian forces targeted the large landing ships Yamal and Azov, as well as a communication center of Russian occupation forces and several infrastructure objects of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol.

Prior to this, explosions were heard in the occupied Crimea, including in Sevastopol, during the night. There were reports on social media suggesting the operation of air defense systems, and occupiers closed the Crimean Bridge. Local residents reported a fire in Kozacha Bay in Sevastopol.

OSINT analysts also noted that a major communication hub of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol could have been targeted.

On the night of March 5th, the special forces unit Group 13 of the Main Directorate of Intelligence near the Kerch Strait struck the patrol ship Sergey Kotov of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. As a result of the attack by the Magura V5 naval drones, the ship was eliminated. This marks the third vessel of the Russian Black Sea Fleet to sink in the last five weeks.

Following a series of significant losses of Russian ships in the Black Sea, on March 10th, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the head of the Russian Navy, was dismissed from his position and replaced by Admiral Alexandr Moiseyev as the commander of the Northern Fleet.

In February, due to losses, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, was retired.