Ukraine says a missile barrage against Russia's Black Sea Fleet was even more successful than it thought

Russia’s Konstantin Olshansky in the bay of Donuzlav, Crimea, in March 2014. AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin

• Ukraine revised its tally of Russian ships it said were damaged in strikes over the weekend.
• It said four Russian ships were hit, when earlier statements just mentioned two.
• Ukraine has targeted Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which the UK said is now “functionally inactive.”

Ukraine said that its weekend strikes on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were more successful than it previously revealed, with damage to two additional vessels.

Ukraine’s navy said on Sunday that it struck two of Russia’s large landing ships, the Yamal and the Azov, in occupied Crimea, in an attack on Saturday.

But in an update on Tuesday, it said it had also damaged two other ships, “the spy ship Ivan Khurs and the Konstantin Olshansky large landing ship.”

Ukraine’s defense ministry said a homemade Neptune anti-ship missile was used to strike the Konstantin Olshansky.

The ship was seized from Ukraine in 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, as Business Insider’s Jake Epstein previously reported.

A Ukrainian navy spokesperson described the ship as “not operational” after the weekend attack, The Moscow Times reported.

Business Insider was unable to independently confirm the attacks, and it is not clear what state the vessels are in.

The latest reported strikes come after a slew of Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

The UK said last month that 25% of Russia’s vessels in the Black Sea had been sunk, damaged, or destroyed. This is despite Ukraine not having a functional navy of its own.

The UK’s defense minister said on Sunday, after Ukraine’s first updates about the attack, that the Black Sea Fleet was “functionally inactive.”

“Putin’s continued illegal occupation of Ukraine is exacting a massive cost on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet which is now functionally inactive,” Grant Shapps wrote, adding: “Russia has sailed the Black Sea since 1783 but is now forced to constrain it’s fleet to port. And even there Putin’s ships are sinking!”

Ukraine has used missiles, drones, and commando raids to harass ships at Sevastopol, Russia’s major Black Sea port in Crimea.

In response, Russia has moved many vessels away to safer, more distant ports.

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