On Wednesday, October 11, the mass media reported preliminary information that the russian Pavel Derzhavin patrol ship of the project 22160, while on an external raid of the temporarily occupied Sevastopol (Crimea), could blow up on its own naval mine.
The following day, Thursday, October 12, the information about the damage to the Russian ship was confirmed to Radio Liberty by the spokesman of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, captain 3rd rank Dmytro Pletenchuk.
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"You are the first to whom I officially confirm today that it was damaged. I cannot provide you with any information regarding the circumstances of this, let’s say, incident," Pletenchuk said.
He emphasized that it is about the ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the russian federation, namely the Pavel Derzhavin patrol ship of the project 22160 (the Vasily Bykov class ship). It should be noted that in a number of sources it is noted that Ukraine also has a ship with the same name - it is probably a border guard ship of project 205P (code "Tarantul") the BG-63 Pavlo Derzhavin).
Pletenchuk in his comments to Radio Svoboda notes that he officially confirms the damage to the Pavel Derzhavin ship, but so far without details. "I cannot provide you with any information regarding the circumstances of this incident, let's call it that, but the fact is this," said Ukraine’s Navy spokesman.
However, he did not specify whether it was a mine detonation or the ship was hit in some other way: "The ship was damaged regardless of which way."
The so-called russian "Ministry of Defense" has not yet reacted to this event in any way. Meanwhile, the "Крымский ветер" (Crimean Wind in English, ed.) Telegram channel reported that a "deaf sound of explosion" was heard in Sevastopol, October 11, around 10 am.
As a reminder, the Pavel Derzhavin patrol ship (corvette) is the third ship of the series, it was laid down in February 2016, launched in February 2019, and handed over to the customer at the end of 2020.
As Defense Express reported, Part of russia’s Black Sea Fleet Left Its Naval Base in Sevastopol. We also wrote, that russia Planed to Relocate the Black Sea Fleet Away From Ukraine to Occupied Abkhazia.
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