Two landing ships of Project 755 and one Project 11711 dock landing ship Pyotr Morgunov – the largest russian vessel of this class – have departed from the naval base of the russian Black Sea Fleet in Novorossiysk, as can be seen in the satellite photos published in open media.
OSINT analyst MT_Anderson added that probably, the watercraft left the port to take part in logistical support near the so-called "Crimean Bridge" in the russian-occupied part of Ukraine in the role of ferries carrying people or cargo.
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We should pay extra attention to the Pyotr Morgunov landing craft of Project 11711. This warship was part of the Northern Fleet of the russian Navy until February 2022, once it entered the waters of the Black Sea it became the largest landing ship, dock (LSD)-class vessel in the region. It has a displacement of 6,600 tons, with a hull 135 meters (443 feet) long and 16.5 meters (54 feet) wide.
In a potential scenario where russia launched a landing operation on the major port city Odesa, which was extremely likely in the first weeks of full-scale invasion in 2022, the Pyotr Morgunov would have been a big problem for the Ukrainian forces because this ship has a declared capacity to fit inside 13 tanks or 36 APCs together with 300 marines.
However, the russians did not attempt such a landing on Odesa in the end, so their LSD had no opportunity to play its intended role. On the other hand, it also has not exposed itself to a direct threat like the Moskva cruiser did on April 13, 2022 when it approached the Ukrainian shore too close and got hit with Neptun missiles.
And so now the big landing craft serves as a ferry for carrying goods, as it has no better application and an assault on Odesa has become a far too distant prospect once Ukraine acquired Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Read more: Potential russian Landing Operation in Odesa Will Result in the 1945 Failure in Japan
