Ukraine’s official Twitter account mocked a Russian warship hit by a Ukrainian drone strike overnight, writing “Russian warship f***s itself watch online free no sign up” on Friday morning.
Russian warship f***s itself watch online free no sign up
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) August 4, 2023
The tweet referred to a sea drone strike on the Russian Black Sea navy base at Novorossiysk overnight. While Russia claimed it thwarted the attack, according to Reuters, a Russian warship was seriously damaged.
POV: you ram into a Russian landing warship as a little simple drone pic.twitter.com/u79u5A4Shb
— Illia Ponomarenko (@IAPonomarenko) August 4, 2023
Footage shared online of the attack from a camera on one of the drones showed the drone ramming into the warship.
Additional footage reportedly from the area later in the day showed the warship appearing to list to the side as it was being towed by a towboat.
The attack prompted the civilian port, which handles 2% of the world's oil supply and also exports grain, to temporarily halt all ship movement before resuming normal operations, according to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium which operates an oil terminal there.
Russia denies warship damaged, despite footage
Russia's Defense Ministry said in a short statement that the Ukrainian attack had been repelled in the waters outside the base and that the two sea drones had been destroyed. It made no mention of any damage.
But a Ukrainian intelligence source said that the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Russian Navy landing ship, had suffered a serious breach and could not conduct combat missions following what they said was a joint operation by the Ukrainian Navy and SBU intelligence service.
Separately, a source with knowledge of the port's operations said a large Russian naval vessel had to be towed ashore because it could not move under its own power after being damaged.
Reuters contributed to this report.