[ColonelCassad] The Russian Ministry of Defense reported damage to the Novocherkassk large landing ship in Feodosia as a result of a night attack by cruise missiles.
The ship received significant damage, there were dead and wounded. Houses near the shore suffered minor damage, with glass broken out.
The downing of two Su-24s launching cruise missiles at Feodosia was also announced.
The FSB identified the people who filmed the missile attack on Feodosia and posted the video online. Those who post it face legal consequences.
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The Russian defense ministry was cited by the Interfax news agency as saying that Ukraine had used air-launched missiles to attack Feodosia and that the ’Novocherkassk’ large landing ship had been damaged in the raid.
The ’Novocherkassk,’ which was built in Poland and entered service in the late 1980s, is designed for amphibious landings and can carry various types of armored vehicles, including tanks.
Footage posted on several Russian news outlets on the Telegram messaging app, purportedly from the port, showed powerful explosions detonating and fires burning.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea, said on the Telegram messaging app that one person had been killed, two injured and six people evacuated from their homes.
Although a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made little in the way of battlefield gains and the Russian military has regained the initiative in several places, Ukraine has been able to launch a series of attacks on Crimea, the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, inflicting serious damage.
The Ukrainian air force said its pilots had attacked Feodosia at about 2:30 a.m. local time with cruise missiles, destroying the ‘Novocherkassk.’
“And the fleet in Russia is getting smaller and smaller! Thanks to the Air Force pilots and everyone involved for the filigree work!” the commander of Ukraine’s air force, Mykola Oleshchuk, said on Telegram.
A statement from the Russian-installed administration of Crimea said that trains were not running from Feodosia and advised people to use an alternative nearby station.
Feodosia, which has a population of around 69,000 people, lies on the southern coast of the Crimean Peninsula.
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Footage purportedly showing a huge explosion in the port was shared by Ukrainian air force commander Lt Gen Mykola Oleshchuk.
The images have not been independently verified. However, satellite imagery from 24 December shows a ship at port in Feodosiya that appears to be the same length as the Novocherkassk - a landing ship designed to transport troops, weapons and cargo to shore.
Any significant damage to the ship will be a welcome bit of good news for Ukraine, with waning Western support now affecting its front-line operations. Given that the Novocherkassk was in dock, it is highly likely it was being loaded with soldiers, equipment or both.
Dr Patrick Bury, a security and defence expert and former Nato analyst, told the BBC News Channel there was speculation that the ship was carrying Iranian-made Shahed drones, which Russia has been using in its attacks on Ukrainian targets.
Speaking on Ukrainian TV, the head of the press centre for Ukraine's southern command, Nataliya Humenyuk, said it was "clear that such a large detonation was caused by more than just the fuel or ammunition of the ship itself".
Ms Humenyuk added that Russia had been facing difficulties with transporting "important cargo" due to the Kerch Bridge, which links Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, being damaged.
"So, it is quite likely that it [the Novocherkassk's cargo] was a kind of "Christmas present, completely wrapped," she said.
Taking the ship out of action, even if only temporarily, will no doubt hamper Russia's ability to supply troops in territory it occupies further north.
What is less clear is how long its operations will be disrupted for and what impact this strike will have on the front lines.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Ukraine's air force has denied that Russia shot down two of its Su-24 bombers about 125km (77 miles) from the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.
And Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that his troops had seized the key town of Mariinka in eastern Ukraine.
Kyiv initially denied the claim, but in a news conference on Tuesday Ukrainian Armed Forces commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi said his troops had withdrawn to the outskirts of the town and beyond.
The area has been used by Ukraine as a defensive barrier since 2014, when Russian-backed fighters seized large swathes of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Tuesday's attack on Feodosiya is not the first time that the Novocherkassk has been targeted by Ukrainian forces.
In March 2022, Ukraine's defence ministry reported that the ship had been damaged in an attack on the occupied Ukrainian port of Berdyansk in which another amphibious assault ship, the Saratov, was sunk.
In a post on Telegram, Lt Gen Oleshchuk wrote that the Novocherkassk had gone the way of the Moskva - the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which sank in the Black Sea last year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quipped that he was "grateful" to the country's air force "for the impressive replenishment of the Russian submarine Black Sea fleet with another vessel," in reference to other Russian ships that have been sunk during the war.
"The occupiers will not have a single peaceful place in Ukraine," he said.
Russia seized and annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and its forces based there played a key part in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian forces in Crimea have since come under repeated Ukrainian attack. Last month, Ukraine's military said it had destroyed 15 Russian navy ships and damaged another 12 in the Black Sea since the start of Russia's war.
After a missile strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol last September, satellite images showed that the Russian navy had moved much of its Black Sea fleet away from Crimea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
The dominance of the Russian navy has been diminished to an extent as result of such attacks, but this year has seen Moscow keep hold of the territory it occupies, despite a Ukrainian counteroffensive.