A video of attack on Ukrainian landing ship “Yuri Olefirenko” by Russian armed forces has been published by Russian media on Telegram
The Ukrainian landing ship “Yuriy Olefirenko” came under rocket and artillery fire near Ochakov. As it became known, the Ukrainian warship, which was at sea, came under fired on June 3, 2022, while the direction of the strike is still unknown.
On the presented video frames, you can see how the landing ship “Yuriy Olefirenko” of the Ukrainian Navy is moving in the direction of Odesa. Unexpectedly large no. of missile and artillery strike was launched on the ship, covering a fairly large area. From which direction the strike was delivered remains unknown, however, judging by the video footage, the landing craft did not receive any damage despite the large number of traces of the strike on the surface of the water.
Ukrainian landing ship "Yuri Olefirenko" under attack by Russian artillery #Ukraine️ #RussiaUkraineWar pic.twitter.com/1xmD9Q5ym5
— The foxbat (@IndiandefenceNS) June 11, 2022
The strike, apparently, was recorded from a drone, which revealed the location of the landing craft near the sea border of the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions of Ukraine, however, at the moment there are no official statements on this subject, including from the command of the Ukrainian Navy. However how exactly the Ukrainian landing ship ended up near the border of the Kherson region is still unknown.
The ship, Yuri Olefirenko, is a project 773 Polnocny-C class landing ship. Built in Poland in 1970, it served with the Soviet Navy during the Cold War. It was transferred to the Ukrainian Navy in 1994, but later taken over by the Russian Navy when they annexed Crimea in 2014. Later returned to the Ukrainian Navy, she has been one of its few large ships since.
There had been reports from Russian sources that it was captured again by the Russian Navy during the invasion. But with the fog of war, these reports appear erroneous.
The Ukrainian Navy was much smaller than the Russian assets in the area and is ships were dispersed, many not ideally placed for the war which ensued. Geography was not on their side. This led to its largest warship, the Krivak class frigate Hetman Sahaidachny, being scuttled. And several warships and gunboats were captured. Yuri Olefirenko it seems, escaped. 100 days into the war, she was still active.