One third of the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet have already been destroyed, including 4 of the 13 large amphibious ships.
Source. This was reported by the spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, Dmytro Pletenchuk, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
"If we take only such a class of ships as a large amphibious assault ship, there were 13 units at the disposal of the so-called Black Sea Fleet at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. At the same time, they (the Russian occupiers – ed.) brought six of them here on purpose under the pretext of exercises in preparation for a full-scale invasion of our country. Of these 13 units, five remain in service as of now: four have been destroyed and four are under repair," Pletenchuk said on the air of a national telethon on Thursday.
The Ukrainian Navy spokesman stated that about a third of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's ships have been destroyed in the Azov and Black Sea regions.
"Another 15 units are being repaired due to various damages, but the grouping remains quite dangerous," Pletenchuk added.
According to him, the remaining large amphibious ships will continue to perform all tasks in the Black Sea and, most likely, those undergoing repairs will also be restored.
"They (the Russian occupiers – ed.) have no choice... They cannot afford to leave the water area. This will be called surrender. Therefore, they are forced to perform all the tasks... This process will continue, as well as the destruction of these units," said the representative of the Ukrainian Navy.
Pletenchuk noted that the occupiers had relocated the ships to Novorossiysk, but this led to limited activities and social problems among the sailors, as their families and civilian infrastructure remained in the occupied Crimea.
As reported, on 14 February, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, together with the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, destroyed the Russian large amphibious assault ship Caesar Kunikov while it was in Ukrainian territorial waters near the occupied city of Alupka. The ship was destroyed by Ukrainian-made Magura V5 maritime strike drones.