Unconfirmed reports from Ukrainian and Western media that the Russian navy frigate Admiral Makarov has been struck by Ukrainian Anti-Ship Missiles off the Coast, but so far there is no clear evidence.
Russian Black sea Navy Frigate ADMIRAL Essen was reportedly hit by Ukrainian anti-ship missile Neptune on May 5, near famous Snake island, Black sea. The ship is reportedly on fire, Russian Navy trying to rescue crew. Some sources already said the frigate sank, but it’s not confirmed and as of the afternoon of May 6.
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko took to his Telegram channel to report the ship had been hit by Ukrainian Neptune missiles. He said that the ship had been hit by Ukrainian attacks and was “badly damaged”, but remained afloat for now. In his post, he wrote: “There is new information about another failure of the Russian fleet near our shores.
An unknown ship is on fire in the western part of the Black Sea. It could be Grigorovich-Class Frigate #Russia #UkraineRussiaWar #Ukraine️ pic.twitter.com/z3ecOExami
— Defence View (@IndiandefenceNS) May 6, 2022
In the video shared by many users on Twitter, the first video frames appeared showing fire and smoke on the deck of the ship, the type of which is currently unknown. But many claim that the ship is Admiral Makarov which was commissioned to Black sea fleet in late 2016.
Turkish media outlet Clash Report has released video footage that is said to show the ship on fire. Nevertheless, due to the rather low quality of the shooting, which, by the way, can be a provocation, it is impossible to reliably determine the type of ship and its belonging.
However, It should be noted that at the moment there are a large number of free-drifting mines in the waters of the Black Sea, which were allegedly laid by the Ukrainian Navy in order to block the approaches to the southern part of Ukraine from the Black Sea. This does not rule out the possibility that one of the ships could well have been blown up by such a mine, especially since a little earlier, free-drifting sea vessels were seen not far from the coast of Odessa, which, according to Ukraine, were washed out to sea.
However Dumskaya, a prominent local news outlet from Odessa, reported: “The Operational Command South has not yet confirmed the defeat of an enemy ship near Snake island.”
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine added a ‘+1’ to their boats column in their daily report on Russian losses this morning, which they tweeted out.
The Admiral Makarov is one of just three frigates of its class active in the Black Sea.
They added that Ukrainian planes were flying overhead with a rescue operation ongoing and that satellite images from the area seemingly confirmed the ship was burning.
The significant damage to the Admiral Makarov would be a serious blow to Putin’s forces.
Commissioned in only 2017, the Makarov is one of Russia’s most modern combat warships and carries a crew of around 200 people it is thought.
It is now one of the largest frigates Russia can currently make because Moscow traditionally has gotten its big marines engines from Ukraine.
The ship is armed with 8 Kalibr missiles as well as 4 torpedoes for air defence the ship is equipped with 24 3S90M SAM. The ship is also equipped with one 100 mm A-190 Arsenal main naval gun, two AK-630 CIWS, 8 Igla-S short range air defence, and one RBU-6000 anti submarine rocket launcher.