The Ukrainian missile raid on the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s anchorage in Sevastopol, in occupied Crimea, didn’t hit two Russian warships.
No, according to an update from Ukrainian authorities, the Sunday raid—involving either air-launched Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG cruise missiles or ground-launched Neptunes or a mix of all three—struck four Russian ships.
The damaged vessels purportedly include two active Ropucha-class landing ships—Yamal and Azov —as well as an inactive Ropucha named Kostiantyn Olshansky that Russia captured from Ukraine during the invasion of Crimea in 2014. The fourth victim is an intelligence vessel, Ivan Hurs, that 10 months ago survived an attack by Ukrainian drone boats.
While satellite imagery of Sevastopol, registered in the days following the raid, seems to confirm damage to several vessels, it doesn’t point to any obvious sinkings. It’s possible all four of the ships the Ukrainians claim they hit—reportedly in Sevastopol’s repair yard, ironically—are fixable.
Damage is damage. Anything that keeps those ships in yard and not useful to the Russians is a good thing. Especially because now Russia has to sink men, money, and time that they may not necessarily have into fixing them
We have already seen how Ukraine broke the Russian blocade via the destruction of Russian warships and is now able to trade via the Black Sea freely. That alone is a massive strategic boon to Ukraine.
And these particular ships form a critical logistics role in keeping occupied Crimea supplied. In the event supplies to the area are strangled (ie: the Kerch Bridge getting hit again) the lack of these operational ships will make it that much harder for the Russians to maintain their presence in that occupied territory.
Furthermore, it reduces the ability of Russia to land troops in Odessa, meaning more men can be removed from there and put somewhere useful.