Reprinted from Radio Free Europe
1
The Askold corvette undergoes sea trials in October 2022.
On November 4, the Karakurt-class Askold corvette, which had yet to enter service with the Russian Navy, was struck by an apparent cruise missile. Ukraine later announced the ship’s “destruction.” Russia’s Defense Ministry described it as “damaged.”
Karakurt corvettes are capable of launching up to eight cruise missiles and are equipped with a version of the Pantsir antiaircraft missile system.
2
Russia’s Minsk, a Ropucha-class landing craft, cruises off the coast of St. Petersburg in July 2021.
In September 2023, several missiles struck a shipyard in the Sevastopol naval base in Russian-occupied Crimea. According to Britain’s Defense Ministry, the Minsk was almost certainly “functionally destroyed” in the strike. Photos of the aftermath showed the ship smoldering and severely damaged.
The Minsk was built in Poland in 1983 and designed with a pop-open bow that could disgorge as many as 25 armored personnel carriers onto a beachhead.
3
The Rostov-on-Don diesel-electric submarine is seen off the coast of Sevastopol in May 2020.
The Rostov-on-Don, which was launched in 2014, was also struck in the September 2023 strike on the Sevastopol naval base. The sub was severely damaged and will either be out of service for an extended period or scrapped.
The sub was filmed in December 2015 firing a barrage of Kalibr cruise missiles at what the Russian military described as Islamic State targets in Syria.
4
The Ropucha-class Olenegorsky Gornyak landing craft on St. Petersburg’s Neva River in July 2021
In August 2023, videos released show a marine drone impacting the landing craft in the Russian port of Novorossiisk. The ship suffered “severe damage” in the attack, according to the British Defense Ministry, and videos later emerged showing the vessel listing heavily under tow
The Polish-made vessel is from the same Ropucha class as the Minsk that was apparently destroyed in September.
5
A Serna-class landing craft carries an infantry fighting vehicle along the Volga River in July 2015.
A Serna was hit with a missile fired from a Bayraktar drone while docking on Snake Island in May 2022.
Serna landing craft are made to carry armored vehicles into “over-the-beach” assault landings and transport cargo. The block-shaped vessels use a unique “air-cavity” design that pumps air under the ship’s hull to reduce drag.
6
The Moskva guided-missile cruiser sails in the Caspian Sea in 2012.
The Russian flagship was famously sunk in April 2022 off the Ukrainian coast, south of Odesa. Ukraine claims the ship sank after being struck by two domestically produced Neptune anti-ship missiles. Russia said the Moskva foundered after an unspecified “fire,” which detonated ammunition on board. It was the largest Russian warship to be sunk since World War II.
The cruiser carried some 500 sailors and wielded a formidable array of weapons, including 16 large cruise missiles.
7
The Tapir-class Saratov landing ship takes part in an amphibious-landing exercise on a beach in Crimea in October 2021.
In March 2022, the Saratov was hit by a Tochka-U ballistic missile and sunk in the port of Berdyansk, Ukraine. Video of the aftermath of the strike showed other Russian vessels escaping the port as the Saratov burned. The charred remains of the vessel were later hauled back to the surface of the port using a dock crane.
8
A Russian Raptor-class patrol boat near Kronstadt in 2016
At least two of the high-speed patrol boats were destroyed by a Ukrainian Bayraktar drone off Snake Island in March 2022.
Raptors are fitted with a remotely controlled weapon, armor, and bullet-resistant glass. They first entered service with the Russian Navy in 2015.