A year after the initial incident, a Russian admiral has officially acknowledged that Ukraine sunk one of its ships in a missile strike.
In the occupied city of Berdyansk in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine started an attack on a captured Russian harbour exactly one year ago.
The attack damaged the Novocherkassk and Caesar Kunikov in addition to destroying the Russian landing ship Saratov.
Around a dozen sailors were killed in the attack across all three landing ships, along with an unknown number of elite marines.
After previously refusing to acknowledge the attack or the damage it wrought, a Russian Black Sea admiral today admitted that Ukraine had managed to sink the vessel, although he refused to concede the total number of lost men.
The admission came at a sombre memorial ceremony involving grieving relatives presided over by senior Black Sea Fleet commander Rear Admiral Felix Menkov.
‘A year ago, in combat, we lost the amphibious force ship Saratov,’ said Menkov.
‘[We] lost the crew of the Saratov, Novocherkassk, Caesar Kunikov landing ships,
‘Today is the first mournful anniversary.
‘We gathered to commemorate our comrades, to remember them.’
He fought back emotion as he said: ‘Our children and grandchildren should be raised with such role models of love and service to the Fatherland.’
A plaque names a dozen Russian servicemen who died in the strike, but it is unclear if this was the full toll.
It also makes clear that elite marines were among those who died.
At the time of the attack, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, released a video of the strike on his Telegram which showed missiles hitting the Saratov, which had been set ablaze.
‘The large amphibious ships Orsk, Cesar Kunnikov, Novocherkask were damaged, Saratov was destroyed,’ the Commander wrote.
‘The myth of the invulnerability of the Russian fleet was destroyed by well-targeted strikes of the AFU. This once again proved an irrefutable fact: the enemy will not rest on Ukrainian land: neither on land nor on water.
Nine were killed on the day of the strike, and three perished from wounds later.
The strike on the Saratov came exactly one month into the bloody war unleashed by Vladimir Putin, but until now the regime had refused to acknowledge the loss.
It was three weeks before the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship – the cruiser Moskva – was destroyed by the Ukrainians.