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Russia confirmed a Ukrainian missile attack damaged one of its Black Sea Fleet warships.
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But Russian officials have said that only one person was killed.
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Independent Russian media suggests dozens may be dead.
The damage to a Russian warship appears much worse than the Kremlin is willing to acknowledge.
The Russian navy’s landing vessel Novocherkassk — part of its Black Sea Fleet — was hit in a Ukrainian attack on a port in Russian-held Crimea, officials said Tuesday.
While the Kremlin-appointed governor there has said the ship was damaged and one person was killed, video and media reports paint a much-darker picture.
Images of a massive explosion at a dock in Feodosia spread on social media. Reporters and open-source intelligence channels posted photos showing smoldering wreckage at the pier, backing up Ukraine’s claim that long-range missiles triggered a massive explosion that blew up the ship.
Independent Russian media is also questioning the stated death toll.
Astra, a Telegram channel sharing Russian news from independent journalists, reported there were 77 sailors aboard the Novocherkassk at the time of the Ukrainian attack; this class of ship typically has a crew size of about 100.
You are correct in my opinion. It seems whoever orchestrated that thought it would be the second Crimea, forgot Ukraine had 8 years to prepare (even with a shared soviet corruption problems and cheap traitors) and completely ignored the historical case of their resistance in and post WW2. One magazine even published a postponned article summarizing the achievements of russian warriors, and there were public persons speculating about taking Kiyv in three days. Even if you ignore them normalizing of such an act at all, they were sniffing their farts while planning it and thinking it’d go alright.
Mostly because I think Russian high command was telling Putin whatever he wanted to hear. “Yeah boss, sure, we’ll just steamroll into Kyiv, nobody will dare fight back against us…” Keep in mind Russia had tried this EXACT same “rush and decapitate” strategy in Georgia in 2008.