Russian missile ship set on fire near Kaliningrad, Ukraine's intelligence claims
The Russian missile ship Serpukhov, which was docked off the exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, was set on fire on April 8, Ukraine's military intelligence claimed.
In a post on Telegram, the agency said that the fire had "disabled" the ship and that "its means of communication and automation were "completely destroyed." The military intelligence also shared a video appearing to show a fire breaking out on the ship.
A source from Ukraine's military intelligence confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that its operatives were behind the fire. It was the first such attack on Russian naval assets in the Baltic Sea.
In recent months, Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russia's Black Sea Fleet targets in occupied Crimea, successfully targeting several ships and forcing some Russian vessels to redeploy to safer waters.
Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine's navy, said on March 30 that the Russian Navy had withdrawn nearly all its major ships from ports in occupied Crimea as a result.
According to the website of the Russian Navy, the Serpukhov is a Buyan-M missile corvette, and is 74 meters long (242 feet), and contains a variety of different weapons systems.
Russian authorities announced earlier on April 8 that the Russian ice navigation vessel Katerina Velikaya caught fire while undergoing repairs at the shipyard Dalzavod in the far eastern city of Vladivostok.
One person was killed, and three others were injured, Russian authorities said, adding that the circumstances of the fire were under investigation.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
