Ukrainian military attacks Konstantin Olshansky ship seized by Russians in Crimea

"The detective story here revolves around the large landing ship Konstantin Olshansky. Unfortunately, this ship was to be used against Ukraine. Therefore, it was decided to hit this unit with our Neptune. It was also hit. The damage is being clarified, but it got damaged. It is not combat-ready now," he says.

Summing up, the spokesperson notes that on the previous night, four Russian ships (Yamal, Azov, Ivan Hurs, and Konstantin Olshansky - ed.) were disabled.

"Of the 13 ships of the Russian Federation, four were destroyed, four more are under repair and 5 are in service. The situation has not changed, because of the 4 that were under repair, Azov and Yamal were just two units. That is, if this action was not carried out, then now they had 6 units in service, and so it remains 5 at the moment", he adds.

Konstantin Olshansky ship

As Pletenchuk reminds, Konstantin Olshansky is a Ukrainian military-industrial complex, which was captured by Russian troops 10 years ago, in 2014, during the annexation of Crimea.

"For nine years, it stood in the Sevastopol Bay, being dismantled for spare parts and plundered. In the 10th year of the war, they realized that they were running out of large amphibious ships of this design, No. 775, and decided to restore it. Within a year, it was dry-docked and restored," he says.

But, as the spokesperson adds, the purpose of these works was to falsify the data to report to the Moscow leadership that they had restored one of their allegedly own battleships.

"It could have been either the Minsk or the Olenegorsky Gornyak because the nature of the damage there is such that their restoration is still a big question. And, accordingly, there was an idea to pass off our ship as one of them," Pletenchuk says.

Strikes on Yamal and Azov

On March 23, explosions were heard in the temporarily occupied Crimea, particularly in Sevastopol. OSINT analysts noted that a large communication hub of the Russian Black Sea Fleet could have been hit in Sevastopol.

On March 24, Russian Telegram channels reported that a well-camouflaged command post with more than two dozen officers in it was hit in Sevastopol.

Later that day, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the Ukrainian Defense Forces had struck at the Russian occupiers' facilities in Sevastopol. Two Russian landing ships, Yamal and Azov, and a communications center were destroyed.

On March 25, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said that the damage to the Russian battleship Yamal was critical. In turn, Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for the Southern Military Command, said that Russian logistics and troop management had been significantly damaged by the attack on the Yamal and Azov. Later it became known that another Russian ship, the Ivan Khurs, could have been damaged during the strike.