The attack on the Russian Rostov-on-Don submarine is a unique situation, because Ukraine does not have regular capabilities to fight against Russian submarines, the Defense Express specialized media writes.
“Ukraine’s effective attack on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in the still occupied Sevastopol can really be considered a fantastic result without any exaggeration. We are talking about disabling for more than a long period of time, or in general, the complete destruction of two ships at once – the Rostov-on-Don submarine and the Minsk large landing ship,” Defense Express writes.
Ukraine struck a large amphibious ship for the third time, and a submarine for the first time. Based on the satellite image, the Oryx monitoring group believes that Rostov-on-Don cannot be restored.
“Submarines themselves are a very difficult target, countering which requires a whole complex of means, with anti-submarine ships, aircraft and helicopters, our own submarines. But there is simply nothing of the above in Ukraine now,” Defense Express explains.
Ukraine has neither modern ships that can patrol the water area to search for and destroy submarines, nor anti-submarine aircraft nor an underwater component of the fleet. The only possibility to target the Russian submarine was to damage the vessel in the bay, experts write.
“And this is exactly what was done by Ukrainian pilots. And this is the first ever use of cruise missiles to destroy a submarine in history, and even more so, immediately effective,” Defense Express emphasized.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine demonstrate unique ideas in military maritime affairs, because for the first time in history, the Ukrainian military destroyed a missile cruiser and successfully used naval drones, Defense Express concluded.
In its September 15 report, the UK Intelligence confirmed that the large Minsk amphibious assault ship “has almost certainly been functionally destroyed” and Rostov-on-Don “has likely suffered catastrophic damage.”
“The loss of the Rostov removes one of the BSF’s four cruise-missile capable submarines which have played a major role in striking Ukraine and projecting Russian power across the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean,” the review states.
