Ukraine takes out £134,000,000 warship stolen by Putin

Putin’s £134,000,000 warship, Konstantin Olshansky, which was damaged in a Ukrainian missile strike (Picture: east2west)

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is suffering one blow after another as it loses yet another warship to Ukrainian missiles.

Ukraine got revenge a decade after Putin’s forces stole the Konstantin Olshansky, along with most of the Ukrainian navy, when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.

The extent of the damage is yet to be determined.

The 369ft landing ship had been renovated for use against its original owner, so Ukraine decided to strike with a Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missile.

A Ukrainian made Neptune missile being launched from the ground (Picture: Social media/east2west)

Declaring the hit on Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said: ‘This ship was supposed to be used by Ukraine.

‘Therefore, a decision was made to defeat this unit with our Neptune.’

It was part of the one of the largest bombardments of Russian-occupied Sevastopol, home of the Black Sea Fleet, since all-out war began in February 2022.

As part of its intensification of attacks on naval targets in occupied Crime, Ukraine also took out the £80 million spy ship, Ivan Khurs, in a massive missile strike with two hits over the weekend.

The 312ft Ivan Khurs reconnaissance ship was heavily damaged when it was ‘hit by two missiles at once’ in the annexed naval port of Sevastopol (Picture: Getty Images)

This was in addition to inflicting ‘critical’ damage on Yamal and Azov, two large landing ships worth £170 million each.

It is believed the ships were hit by an Anglo-French Storm Shadow and SCALP bombardment.

Although the condition of the Ivan Khurs and its crew of up to 131 is unclear, Ukraine believes none of the latest four targets are able for use in Russia’s war.

‘The occupiers are continuously pumping water from the damaged ship, which took part in the annexation of Crimea and was under repair from 2017 to 2023’, Ukrainian military intelligence GUR said on Telegram.

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin might win rigged elections at home, but he’s facing mounting humiliation in the Black Sea (Picture: Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/ Kremlin Pool/EPA)

Putin had just sacked the navy’s commander-in-chief, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, days earlier due to the humiliation of having its sea superiority whittled down by a country with no large warships of its own.

Ukraine had disabled a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet warships by early February,the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed.

That figure is now a quarter after the weekend strikes.

Russia has lost eight vessels since December alone.

This is thanks to Ukraine’s campaign of kamikaze sea drone and missile strikes, aided by a burgeoning domestic drone industry.

Mayor of Kyiv Vitalii Klychko views the rubble of buildings destroyed by a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian capital (Picture: Oleksandr Gusev/Global Images Ukraine via Getty)

Russia is yet to comment on the strike on the Konstantin Olshansky.

Putin replaced Yevmenov with Admiral Alexander Moiseev, 61.

Elsewhere, Ukrainians woke to further destruction amid Russian drone and missile attacks against cities on Monday.

In Kyiv, residents heard at least four loud explosions just seconds after air raid sirens, leaving them no time to reach shelter.

Debris from an intercepted missile damaged a non-residential building when it fell in the city’s Pechersk district, the city’s City Military Administration said on Telegram.

Two people were injured.

In Odesa, four people were injured and two buildings were destroyed in a ballistic missile attack.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.