Maybe Ukraine’s patron saint isn’t actually St. Javelin, but St. Patrick. Whoever is running the show, they don’t seem to like Russians who hang around Snake Island.
And when it comes to landing ships, Russia appears to have lost another at … where else.
This is the fourth landing ship Russia has lost, after one was sunk and two more damaged by an earlier missile strike in the Sea of Azov. Adding a nice bit of irony to this drone takedown is the fact that the ship was in the process of delivering an anti-aircraft system for Russians occupying the island. Russia might have used that when to jets from the Ukrainian Air Force showed up to stroke targets days later.
And of course the original unwanted visitor to Snake Island, the cruiser Moskva, flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, got promoted to submarine after being on the radio reply that was the best signal of just how the whole war was going to go down for Putin.
However, when it comes to this report, the Black Sea still seems a little… dark.
The wits at Wikipedia took no time at all to translate this news into an updated entry for the frigate in question.
But there remains no confirmation of this sinking. In fact, Russian sources have claimed the Makrov is “chilling” in the port at Sevastopol. Meanwhile others have insisted that low-resolution video showing a sinking ship is the Makrov settling into the sea. Something seems to have happened, as the time of the ship’s reported disappearance was marked by a lot of overflights from the US and other potentially interested parties. But there’s no clear evidence that Russia lost this ship.
The best guess is that the Makrov did not sink, and probably was never hit. The closest thing to an official statement suggests this was a “misunderstanding.” Or maybe it sank. I genuinely do not know.
But it would probably be advised to stay away from Snake Island.