Russian Black Sea Fleet Gets New Landing Ship after Novocherkassk Sinking

Russia may have deployed its newest large landing ship in Crimea less than two weeks after one of its vessels was damaged in Ukrainian strikes on the occupied peninsula which dealt a blow to President Vladimir Putin's forces.

Dozens of Russian service members are believed to be missing or wounded after the 369-foot Ropucha-class Novocherkassk landing ship was struck in the port of Feodosia on December 26.

Video shows a large secondary explosion on the vessel, although Russian state media said that the amphibious assault landing ship, which was reportedly carrying munitions, possibly Iranian-made Shahed kamikaze drones, only "suffered damage" in the strike.

The Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that the attack was carried out with cruise missiles delivering another success for Kyiv against Russia's Black Sea Fleet despite not having any meaningful conventional naval force.

But citing satellite imagery on January 6 shared by open-source intelligence X account MT Anderson, the Krymsky Veter (Crimean Wind) Telegram channel reported that Moscow may have deployed an Ivan Gren-class landing ship from Novorossiysk in Russia's Krasnodar region.

The images taken by the Sentinel-2 satellite show the Project 11711 ship docked in Sevastopol Bay, according to the report which was also carried by Ukrainian media.

The Petr Morgunov landing ship, which belongs to the same project, was reportedly deployed to the Black Sea two years ago, before Putin's invasion, and had been stationed in Novorossiysk, Krymsky Veter reported.

The vessel is the second ship of the series commissioned on December 23, 2020 and can transport a reinforced naval battalion and conduct landings on pontoons. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

Other Ukrainian successes in the Black Sea include sinking the flagship Moskva in April 2022 and damaging landing ships, such as Minsk, Saratov and the Olenegorsky Gornyak.

But as Ukraine continues to make headline-grabbing Black Sea strikes with Western missiles such as the British-supplied Storm Shadow, calls from Kyiv are growing for Germany to supply Taurus cruise missiles especially considering massive Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities over the New Year.

Gustav Gressel, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said that Taurus cruise missiles "would help Ukraine to maintain pressure on the Russian Black Sea fleet and continue to export grain via the Black Sea."

"Taurus cruise missiles are particularly suitable for striking targets in the occupied areas, because their navigation and guidance system does not rely on GPS signals," he told Newsweek in emailed comments. This would mitigate the impact of Russian electronic warfare troops' GPS spoofing that has limited the effectiveness of a lot of U.S.-supplied weapons which rely on GPS, he added.

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