Ukrainian naval ship sunk in drone attack, says Russian Defence Ministry

Moscow, Aug 28 (IANS) Ukrainian Navy's reconnaissance ship Simferopol, which was reportedly the largest ship commissioned by the country in over a decade, has been hit and sunk in a naval drone strike, the Russian Defence Ministry announced on Thursday.

The Laguna-class, medium-sized ship, designed for radio, electronic, radar, and optical reconnaissance, was struck in the delta of the River Danube, part of which is located in Ukraine’s Odessa Region, a Defence Ministry statement said, RT reported.

This was the first successful use of a sea drone to take out a Ukrainian Navy vessel, as per a TASS report citing a UAV expert, the RT added.

Ukrainian authorities confirmed that the vessel has been hit.

The attack killed one crew member and injured multiple others, the Kiev Independent wrote on Thursday, citing a Ukrainian Navy spokesperson.

"Efforts to address the aftermath of the attack are ongoing. The majority of the crew are safe, and the search for several missing sailors continues," it cited the spokesperson as saying.

The Simferopol was launched in 2019 and joined the Ukrainian Navy two years later.

According to the WarGonzo Telegram channel, the vessel was the largest ship that Kiev has managed to launch since 2014.

Russia, in recent months, has moved to accelerate the production of naval drones, as well as other unmanned systems that have increasingly dominated the Ukraine conflict.

Russia also struck a major drone facility in Kiev with two missile strikes overnight, Ukrainian politician Igor Zinkevich claimed on Thursday, RT reported.

The site was preparing to produce Turkish Bayraktar drones, he said.

--IANS

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