Touched, sunk, blocked. Russian naval engineers strike

(BRUSSELS2) After an explosion, a Russian ship Ochakov sank last night in the Crimea near a Ukrainian naval base located north of Sebastopol... To read the first elements of the information, one could believe in a sudden aggravation of the situation to a naval battle that went wrong. .. Error !

It is a real stroke of naval genius that the General Staff of the Russian Navy succeeded in the night of Wednesday to Thursday. Story... Yesterday evening, the Russian ships which had been blocking the Ukrainian ships on Lake Donuszlav for several days restarted their engines and left the harbour. It was 23:30 p.m., according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. One could then believe in a lifting of the state of siege. Somehow yes, but immediately a tugboat arrives dragging behind it another Russian ship, the Oshakov. It is placed " across the navigation channel, filled with water. Then there was an explosion." says the Ukrainian Navy. The boat sinks... and blocks the harbour.

Long and expensive to unblock the harbor

You should know that the water depth in this area is 9 to 11 meters. In other words, by sinking this old tub (*), the Russians have succeeded in a masterstroke: blocking all the Ukrainian ships present which are around Novoozerne, at the bottom of Lake Donuzlav. It will be necessary " a lot of time and it will be expensive to refloat the ship we confirm at the HQ of the Ministry of Defense in Kiev. All this without firing a shot except on his own ship!

Read also: Tension in the Black Sea. Boarding!

(*) The Ochakov, a Kara class ship, built in the early 1970s and entered service in 1975 was decommissioned in 2008.