Russia is drastically underplaying the toll of its warship exploding, report suggests
Russia confirmed a Ukrainian missile attack damaged one of its Black Sea Fleet warships.
But Russian officials have said that only one person was killed.
Independent Russian media suggests dozens may be dead.
The damage to a Russian warship appears much worse than the Kremlin is willing to acknowledge.
The Russian navy's landing vessel Novocherkassk — part of its Black Sea Fleet — was hit in a Ukrainian attack on a port in Russian-held Crimea, officials said Tuesday.
While the Kremlin-appointed governor there has said the ship was damaged and one person was killed, video and media reports paint a much-darker picture.
Images of a massive explosion at a dock in Feodosia spread on social media. Reporters and open-source intelligence channels posted photos showing smoldering wreckage at the pier, backing up Ukraine's claim that long-range missiles triggered a massive explosion that blew up the ship.
Independent Russian media is also questioning the stated death toll.
Astra, a Telegram channel sharing Russian news from independent journalists, reported there were 77 sailors aboard the Novocherkassk at the time of the Ukrainian attack; this class of ship typically has a crew size of about 100.
While one person is confirmed dead, 33 more are missing and another 23 were wounded, a report on the Astra channel said, citing anonymous sources.
Russia's apparent downplaying of the attack calls to mind the cruiser Moskva's sinking in 2022, after which some families of the ship's 500 crew members said officials were keeping them in the dark.
The attack on the Novocherkassk is most likely not a serious blow to the Russian war machine, analysts including Mark Galeotti at The Spectator have said. The loss of the ship would reduce the Black Sea Fleet's capacity to move troops and tanks by sea.
But the strike is just the latest to target Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which Ukrainian forces have hammered since Russia's invasion began. Business Insider previously reported that Russian naval assets in occupied Crimea were being moved to safer ports.
Feodosia — the eastern Crimean dock where the Novocherkassk was hit — was one of those ports.
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