According to MT Anderson, an OSINT account on X (formerly Twitter), a Kilo-class submarine-shaped model was spotted at the Sevastopol Naval Base. Anderson suggested that the model could either be a camouflaged wreck of the Rostov-on-Don submarine or a mockup of a Kilo-class submarine.
In the meantime, the UK Ministry of Defence posted a tweet mentioning that a Ukrainian attack on Crimea highly likely resulted in the sinking of a Russian Black Sea Fleet submarine.
H.I. Sutton, an OSINT analyst and regular contributor to Naval News believes that this can be relevant to decoying potential Ukrainian attacks to avoid more losses of strategic naval assets.
The Russian Navy’s improved Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don was struck by a missile in Sevastopol on September 13, 2023. Ukraine claimed responsibility for attacking naval targets and port infrastructure in Crimea, including a submarine in drydock and a large landing vessel named Minsk.
Shortly after the attack, the Russian state-run Ria Novosti news agency reported that the Russian defense ministry stated both vessels would be fully repaired and returned to normal service. But the photos of the submarine suggested that the repair process seemed a bit unrealistic.
You can read our coverage about Ukraine’s attack on Rostov-on-Don submarine at this link:
