Photos emerge of Russian Askold missile carrier destroyed in Kerch

The first photographs of a Russian Askold missile carrier that was destroyed in the Zaliv shipyard in temporarily occupied Crimea have appeared online. 

Source: Centre for Strategic Communications; Crimean Wind

Details: Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications (StratCom) says the ship has sustained significant damage and may be beyond repair. 

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The damaged Askold missile carrier

PHOTO: CRIMEA WIND 

Background: 

• Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk, Commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, reported that Ukrainian pilots carried out airstrikes on the infrastructure of the Zaliv shipbuilding yard in Kerch. At the time, it was not known for sure whether the ship had been destroyed.
• Following the explosions, the Russians claimed for half a day that “fragments of downed missiles had fallen on one of the dry docks”.
• It was not until late in the evening on 4 November that the Russian Defence Ministry said that a ship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet that had been stationed at the Kerch shipyard “has been damaged”.
• On the morning of 5 November, Oleshchuk confirmed that the Ukrainian military had sunk one of the most modern ships in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – a Kalibr cruise missile carrier.