The Ukrainian army announced yesterday Sunday that it directly hit, causing damage, rescue ship of the Russian Navythe oldest still in service around the world, at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, home of the Black Sea Fleet.

According to Dmytro Pletenchuk, a representative of the Ukrainian PN, the Kommuna vessel was hit while it was docked in the Sevastopol Bay yesterday morning and “it is clear that now (…) unable to perform missions’.

The Ukrainian armed forces reported via Telegram that it is one of the oldest ships of the Russian Navy, which was launched in 1913.

According to reports, the catamaran was involved in a mission to retrieve bodies and sensitive material when the Ukrainian military sank the Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, in April 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly touted his military’s successes in attacks against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Crimea, a peninsula Russia annexed in 2014.

According to the representative of the Ukrainian PN Pletenchuk, in Ukrainian operations approximately one third of this fleet has been destroyed or put out of service since the outbreak of the war.

For his part, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvazaev said yesterday that Russian armed forces had repelled a missile attack targeting a docked ship, adding that debris had caused a small fire which he assured was immediately extinguished.