The Armed Forces of Ukraine sank two ships of the Russian Navy with Harpoon missiles, not one, as was officially reported
In addition to the missile cruiser ‘Moskva’, the large amphibious assault ship ‘Saratov’, the rescue ship ‘Vasily Bekh’ and a number of boats, the ZSU has another Rashi ship
The Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed two Rashist ships with the help of Harpoon anti-ship missiles provided by the allies. One of them is the rescue tug ‘Vasily Bekh’, which was destroyed in mid-June.
‘Vasily Bekh’ was intercepted on the route to the then still occupied Zmiiny Island, when it was transporting weapons, fuel and, most likely, personnel to the island. The moment the ship was hit by two Harpoon missiles was captured from the Bayraktar TB2 UAV.
But as US Deputy Secretary of Defense for Procurement and Support Bill LaPlante (Bill LaPlante) ‘said’ during the conference, two ships were destroyed by Harpoon missiles, reports Defense One.
The name, time and other details of the destruction of this second ship of the Russian Navy were not disclosed by the US Deputy Secretary of Defense. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, or the command of the Navy of Ukraine, or any other official structure, did not announce this either.
The only ‘clue’ that could serve as a reference point is a photo of the missile corvette of the Russian Navy of project 21631 ‘Buyan-M’, which was also towed along the Volga with its radar equipment removed in mid-June.
Despite the fact that the name of the ship was sketched, due to the number of letters and characteristic deformations of the hull, the most likely candidate is the ‘Great Ustyug’, assigned to the Caspian flotilla of the Russian Federation.
The available photos, which, admittedly, were taken from one side, do not show significant damage to the ship. But the fact is that already in July this ship took part in the parade of the Russian Navy in St. Pereterburg. That is, it is impossible to classify it as ‘sunk’ or ‘damaged with further decommissioning’ for a considerable time.
Taking into account the fact that the Rashists hide all their losses as much as possible, and also mask the names and numbers of the ships, it is still impossible to determine the second ‘victim’ of Harpoon. It is only possible to make an assumption that we are talking about another ship that carried out transportation to Zmiiny Island or escorted transport, if the Rashists practiced this.
But, considering everything, we are hardly talking about a full-fledged warship even of such a small class as ‘Buyan-M’, the loss of which would be difficult to hide even in the Russian Federation. The option of defeating a trawler-class ship or a landing craft in general looks more realistic.
