Photo copyright, Sergei Malgavko/TASS
Photo caption,
The launching ceremony of “Sergei Kotov” took place on January 29, 2021 at the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch
March 5, 2024
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine claims that off the coast of Crimea on the night of March 5, naval drones attacked and destroyed the Russian patrol ship Sergei Kotov.
“The enemy has been chasing this patrol ship for a long time.”
Russian military bloggers also reported regarding the attack on the Sergei Kotov ship and published a video. The Russian Ministry of Defense and other official sources do not comment on the situation. Traffic on the Crimean Bridge was suspended for eight hours at night.
“The enemy ship Sergei Kotov was destroyed,” says the statement of the main directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR), published in a telegram. To support their statement, the Ukrainian military published their video.
According to the GUR, on the night of March 5, its special unit Group 13 attacked a patrol ship of the Black Sea Fleet “in cooperation” with the Ukrainian Navy and “with the support” of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate, as a result of a strike by Magura V5 naval drones, the Russian Project 22160 ship Sergey Kotov received damage to the stern, as well as the right and left sides. According to the press release, the attack was carried out “near the Kerch Strait.”
“The ship is hit, there is significant damage,” a source of the BBC Ukrainian Service in the Main Intelligence Directorate said in the morning.
Russian “military correspondents” also write regarding the attack. In particular, Alexander Kots wrote in a telegram that “the enemy has been chasing this patrol ship for a long time” – “only official reports included at least three attacks on it by unmanned boats.”
According to Kots, in September the patrol ship Sergei Kotov repelled an attack by five Ukrainian unmanned boats (BEC). “But, unfortunately, the enemy also evolves. He is reported to have fought off the BECs once more last night. The crew fought heroically until the last. This can be seen from the published video. But this time it’s a story without a happy ending,” the military correspondent wrote. The video was published by the pro-war channel Pozdnyakov 3.0.
The pro-war telegram channel “Two Majors” claims that the “Sergey Kotov” was attacked in the Black Sea near Feodosia (“according to our data, the entire crew is alive, evacuated, there are several wounded”).
“The Russian Black Sea Fleet is a symbol of occupation. “He cannot be in Ukrainian Crimea,” Andriy Ermak, head of the office of the President of Ukraine, said in a telegram this morning.
On February 14, the Ukrainian General Staff announced an attack on the large landing ship Caesar Kunikov in the Black Sea. The Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on the statements of the Ukrainian military regarding the sinking of the ship; the Kremlin refused to comment.
BBC military commentator Pavel Aksenov on the significance of this attack
Author photo, MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF UKRAINE
Photo caption,
The Ukrainian military published a video of the alleged attack on the ship
“Sergey Kotov” was launched in 2021, and entered into the fleet in May 2022, following the start of the war in Ukraine.
At that moment, Ukrainian unmanned boats did not yet pose such a serious threat at sea. Project 22160 itself, obviously, fully met the requirements for ships of this class.
Corvettes of this class were created to solve a wide range of tasks, potentially even launching Kalibr cruise missiles, but their main job is patrolling and guarding other, larger ships.
In total, Russia has four such ships – Vasily Bykov, Dmitry Rogachev, Pavel Derzhavin and Sergey Kotov. Crew – up to 80 people. Nothing is known for certain regarding its fate, but the GUR claims that seven people were killed, six were injured, and 52 crew members were probably evacuated.
They are armed with a 76.2 mm artillery mount and two 14.5 mm heavy machine guns, as well as an electronic warfare system. However, these weapons were not enough for the ship, created to protect others, to protect itself.
The Sergei Kotov might well have been effective as a high-speed border patrol corvette in peacetime, but found itself in a war whose customs and techniques differ greatly from the ideas of the peacetime military command.
Uncrewed boats in the Black Sea have proven to be a very effective means – especially in conditions where Russia does not have the ability to track their movements in advance before they set out on a combat course towards the next ship of the Black Sea Fleet.
The ships themselves also lack the means to combat such boats – or their crews are not quite ready to fight them.
