The Associated Press has provided another update discussing the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It's been reported that Ukraine's military has used advanced naval drones to sink a Russian ship.
Canadian soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) walk during a patrol in Panjwayi district 30 km in the west of Kandahar province on March 28, 2008.Russia is ready to help NATO on Afghanistan, provided that Moscow's security interests, including a halt to eastward expansion of NATO, are respected, Russia's deputy foreign minister said on March 28, Interfax news agency reported. Canada has 2,500 troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) , most of the them in Kandahar province, one of the worst areas hit by unrest linked to an insurgency led by the extremist Taliban movement. AFP PHOTO/SHAH Marai
The ship was the Caesar Kunikov, an amphibious ship. It was sunk 2.5 miles off of Alupka a city located on the Southern edge of the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Ukrainian officials have reported that the ship can carry up to 87 crew members and was transporting ammunition. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov declined to discuss the incident on a conference call and stated that questions should be addressed to the Russian military. Russian military bloggers have also reported on the incident, but they did not report on the actual sinking of the vessel. However, Ukraine has taken a more defensive stance in the conflict due to its slowly depleting ammunition stock and overall personal shortage. Despite these setbacks, this is the second time in the past two weeks that Ukrainian forces have sunk a Russian vessel within the Black Sea as they have also published a video that depicts more of their naval drones attacking Corvette Ivanovets armed with missiles.
The Ukrainian intelligence known as GUR, has stated their special operations unit "Group 13" had sunk the vessel with Magura V5 sea drones on Wednesday and they state that explosions had damaged the vessel on its left side but the Associated Press has stated that the video is heavily edited and unclear. GUR's Andrii Yusov did not provide a statement discussing how many drones were used and only told reporters that the operation took "A long time to prepare, routes are tracked, data is collected"
The report also cites the private intelligence firm known as Ambrey which stated at least three drones conducted the attack and that the ship likely sunk after heavy damage on it's port side. They have also reported that the ship was part of the Russian fleet responsible for escorting merchant vessels that call at Crimean Ports.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian aircraft and ships in the Black Sea have helped push back Moscow's naval force from the coast which has been allowing Kyiv to increase the exports of grains and other goods through its southern parts. The new generation of remote weapons has become more and more crucial as the conflict continues although these weapons have had some mixed results according to some accounts from Ukrainian forces.
Looking to the Russian military they have not commented on the claimed skinning of the vessel and have only said that they have destroyed six Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea overnight. In addition, another attack from Russian forces in the town of Selydove locked in the eastern Donetsk region hit both a medical facility and a residential building. The attack killed one child, a pregnant woman, and wounded three more children according to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Ihor Klymenko who provided the statement on social media.
