Forbes Confirms Sinking Of Russian Warship In December 2023

The Ukrainian fleet reportedly sank a Russian Black Sea Fleet Stenka-class patrol boat during a series of raids in late December, according to David Axe for Forbes.

The Black Sea Fleet has lost a cruiser; four large amphibious landing ships; a submarine; a supply ship; several corvettes, patrol boats, and small landing crafts; and Tarantul. I Photo: Tostan Wikimedia Commons

One or more explosives-laden drone boats struck the 200-ton Tarantul in Sevastopol’s Graf Bay, destroying it. However, it wasn’t until weeks later that Ukrainian partisans verified Tarantul’s sinking—verification that overhead satellite imagery confirms.

Add the Cold War-vintage patrol boat to the long, and growing, list of Black Sea Fleet vessels the Ukrainians have taken out of action.

In 23 months of hard fighting, the Black Sea Fleet has lost a cruiser; four large amphibious landing ships; a submarine; a supply ship; several corvettes, patrol boats, and small landing crafts; and Tarantul.

The losses amount to roughly a fifth of the fleet’s pre-war strength.

In 2023, the Russian navy netted just 6,300 tons and ended the year with a total tonnage of 2,152,000, a third of the US Navy’s tonnage.

The Russians would have added 17,700 tons last year through the new construction of a frigate, corvettes, a minesweeper, and submarines, but the Ukrainians destroyed Black Sea Fleet vessels together weighing 11,400 tons. 11,600 tons if you count Tarantul.

What’s especially embarrassing for the Black Sea Fleet is that it’s losing a naval war with a Ukrainian fleet that, before the wider war, had just one large warship: the frigate Hetman Sahaydachniy.

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