Satellite images show damage to Russian naval vessels struck in Ukraine attack

[September 14, 2023]  KYIV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian missile attack on the Sevastopol Shipyard in Russian-annexed Crimea this week caused heavy damage to a large Russian landing ship and submarine, commercial satellite imagery showed.  

A combination image of satellite photos shows Sevastopol, Crimea before a Ukrainian missile attack, on September 12, 2023 (inset) and a view of the same site after the missile attack, on September 13, 2023. BlackSky/Handout via REUTERS

Kyiv said on Wednesday the two vessels were likely beyond repair after the pre-dawn missile attack on the port city of Sevastopol. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the strike, but said the vessels would be fully repaired and return to service. Overhead images of the shipyard taken by the Black Sky company the day before and the day of the Sept. 13 attack showed two vessels in dry dock were visibly damaged. "The Minsk Project 775 Ropucha-class landing ship and the Rostov-on-Don Kilo-class submarine vessels... sustained damage," the company wrote on the X social media platform late on Wednesday, publishing the images. The strike was seen by military analysts as the biggest attack of the war on Sevastopol, which is home of the Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet. Russian forces seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and annexed it in 2014. (Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Editing by Timothy Heritage) [© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.