Ukraine on Thursday celebrated blowing up a Russian warship that was bringing military supplies to invading forces.
“The morning starts with good news!” Ukraine’s armed forces gloated as it shared videos and photos of the still-blazing landing ship, the Orsk.
“The occupiers are burning well!” the message bragged just days after Russia had celebrated the warship’s arrival with military supplies as an “epic event.”
Aerial footage showed huge plumes of black smoke billowing over the Azov Sea from the docks in Berdyansk, an area that Ukraine said has been “captured by Russia.”
The flames burst out as the ship sat near at least two others, although it was not immediately clear if the damage spread beyond the Orsk.
Defense analyst and author H.I. Sutton speculated that the Alligator-class ship was destroyed with a “ballistic missile strike.” Two other ships were seen “sailing away as fire raged,” he tweeted.
The Orsk had arrived Monday at Berdyansk, a port about 60 miles from Mariupol, the city that has faced the war’s most punishing assaults.
A Russian officer hailed its arrival as “an epic event that opens up opportunities” for bringing supplies, state-run news agency TASS noted.
“The large landing craft of the Black Sea Fleet has arrived and is unloading, in front of your eyes, armored personnel vehicles that will reinforce our grouping,” the officer had said of the now-destroyed ship that can transport up to 1,500 tons of equipment and cargo.
Russia has yet to comment on the apparent destruction of the Orsk.
