Dmytro Pletenchuk: In occupied Crimea, Russia no longer has any missile carriers

In occupied Crimea, the Russian Federation no longer maintains any missile carriers. The latest was the small missile ship Askold.

Dmytro Pletenchuk, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy, revealed this in an interview with RBK-Ukraine. According to Pletenchuk, the Project 22800 Karakurt missile ship Askold has an interesting history. This project dates back to the 1990s, making the ships new but the project itself old. Russians were compelled to return to this project after 2014 when Ukraine imposed sanctions and halted the supply of gas turbine engines for their frigates.

"They were even forced to sell several already constructed hulls to India due to the lack of engines. Instead, small missile ships could be equipped with Russian engines from the Zvezda plant, although they could only produce one such engine per year. Later on, they switched to engines of Chinese production," he added.

As a result, Russians reverted to Project 22800 Karakurt to build five ships for the Black Sea Fleet. The first of these was Cyclone, completed two years ago, yet it failed to launch the Kalibr cruise missile it was designated for.

"Recently, it was simply destroyed. It gives me the impression that Russians deliberately placed it there so that someone would not go to jail for how they built this Cyclone. It failed state trials over two years," noted Pletenchuk.

Additionally, there were four other ships in this project:

• Askold, destroyed by the Air Force in Kerch at the Zaliv plant.
• Two others hastily relocated from Novorossiysk to the Caspian Sea, yet to undergo trials.
• Another under construction in Zelenodolsk (Tatarstan).