Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief releases video of army destroying Russian ship Saratov last year

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has released a video showing troops destroying the Saratov, a Russian ship, in the port of the Ukrainian city of Berdiansk a year ago. The occupiers only recently confirmed the loss of the vessel.

Source: Zaluzhnyi on Telegram; ForPost, citing a statement by Felix Menkov, occupying "commander" of the Naval Base of Crimea, at the opening of a plaque commemorating the sailors; CrimeaRealii  

Quote from Zaluzhnyi: "A year ago, on 24 March 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a missile attack on the Russian base in the port of temporarily occupied Berdiansk.

Some large landing ships – the Orsk, the Caesar Kunikov and the Novocherkask – were damaged, and the Saratov was destroyed.

The myth of the invincibility of the Russian fleet was dispelled by these high-precision attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This has once again proven an undeniable fact: the enemy will know no peace on the Ukrainian land, either on land or at sea."

Залужний показав, як ЗСУ знищили російський корабель “Саратов” у Бердянську рік тому pic.twitter.com/CQbyUtknSL

— Українська правда ✌ (@ukrpravda_news) March 24, 2023

Details: It was not until the anniversary of the destruction of the ship near Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, that the occupiers officially confirmed the loss of the ship in combat.

At the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the fallen sailors of the landing ships, Felix Menkov, the Russian-appointed Commander of the Crimea Naval Base, said, "A year ago, in combat, we lost the combat landing ship Saratov. We also lost the crews of the Saratov, the Novocherkask, and the Caesar Kunikov."

The media outlet CrimeaRealii stressed that this is the first official confirmation of the loss of the ship in combat. The Russian military had previously denied the losses when these landing ships were struck with Ukrainian missiles. 

Background:

• On 24 March 2022, in the Russian-occupied port of Berdiansk, the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed the Saratov, a large landing ship of the occupiers' Black Sea Fleet. The fire spread to other ships, fuel and ammunition.
• The commanders of the two damaged landing ships in Berdiansk turned out to be traitors to Ukraine who defected to Russia in 2014.
• The US company Maxar Technologies released satellite images of the destroyed landing ship Saratov.
• The Russian occupiers raised the sunken landing ship and sent it to occupied Crimea to be repaired.

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