In a show of military vitality shortly before President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for more military assistance from NATO (the US-led alliance), Ukraine launched an unprecedented missile attack against a port that had been occupied by Russia.
At least one landing ship for troops, armored vehicles and ammunition, the Orsk, was destroyed in the attack and sank within 5 meters of the port of Berdiansk, according to the Ukrainian navy. Moscow has yet to comment on the case, but images on social media and analysis by even pro-Russian observers suggest the report is correct.
In a channel of Russian military analysts on Telegram, the information is that two other ships were hit, but left the port of the Sea of Azov. There are doubts among them whether the vessel hit was the Orsk or the Saratov, the other amphibious assault vessel of its class serving the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
According to these reports, at least three people were killed in the action, in which Kiev used Totchka-U ballistic missiles. It is Ukraine’s first victory of its kind in this war.
She came just under three hours before NATO leaders were due to meet in Brussels, American Joe Biden at the front, where they listen to Zelensky by video. It was hardly thought of as a calling card, as Russian ships began unloading equipment in Berdiansk last week, with fanfare and TV broadcasting.
The port is strategic, and is 75 km from the besieged city of Mariupol. Russian forces have made their biggest advances in a month-long war in southern Ukraine, and the fall of this other port on the Sea of Azov could consolidate the establishment of the land link between the breakaway regions of the Donbass (east) and Crimea, annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2014.
There is an additional psychological component, which is a small victory in the Sea of Azov, an almost closed area of the Black Sea, separated from it by the Kerch Strait, controlled by the Russians since 2014. The Ukrainian navy was effectively nullified so far, and had to sink. his main ship to prevent him from being captured like so many others.
The attack with the Tochka (dot, in Russian) a Soviet short-range system, however, took place overland. It hits targets up to 180 km, depending on the version of this model created in 1973 and still operated by ten countries. It has been used for Kiev’s most impactful actions in the war, such as the lone attack on Donetsk, one of the two rebel capitals in the east of the country.
