Ukrainian Armed Forces probably destroyed Cyclone, which was the last missile carrier in Crimea – Pletenchuk
There is a high probability that, in addition to the Kovrovets minesweeper, the Cyclone small missile ship, the last Kalibr carrier in the area of the temporarily occupied peninsula, was also destroyed in Crimea.
This was stated by the head of the press centre of the Southern Defence Forces, Dmytro Pletenchuk, on the air of the United News telethon.
Destruction of the Cyclone ship: what the Ukrainian Armed Forces say
– There is a possibility that the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea has lost its last cruise missile carrier. However, this information has not yet been confirmed, so we need to wait,” he said.
Pletenchuk noted that this is the last missile carrier that was located in Crimea, as all the others were moved to Novorossiysk.
This is a small missile ship of the 22800 Cyclone project, which was reported by Russian publics in the port of occupied Sevastopol on the night of 20 May.
According to them, the missile carrier was allegedly hit by ATACMS missiles, killing six crew members and injuring 11.
This means that two ships, the Kovrovets and the Cyclone, were probably hit in the Sevastopol bay on the night of 19 May.
On Radio Liberty, Pletenchuk clarified that the Cyclone served as an air defence vessel – it was armed with a Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system, but the occupiers had not yet fired a single shot from this ship.
If its destruction is confirmed, according to the head of the press centre of the Southern Defence Forces, this gives the Ukrainian military more time to respond to missile attacks.
– This affects the tactical capabilities of the Russian army in our region in any case. And this, of course, significantly reduces them… If Cyclone had used, for example, the same calibres in Crimea, we would have had much less time to respond than from Novorossiysk, so this is a security issue for us,” he added.
Cyclone: what is known about the ship
This is a small missile ship of the 22800 project of the Karakurt series.
The Cyclone was laid down in June 2016 at the Zaliv shipyard in temporarily occupied Kerch and launched in June 2020.
In December 2021, the launch vehicle was moved to Sevastopol for testing.
It was only in July 2023 that the ship was commissioned into service with the Russian Navy.
The Cyclone is armed with the Oniks and Kalibr vertical launcher, an upgraded 76.2 mm AK-176MA artillery system and the Palash anti-aircraft gun.
