The Ukrainian army said, on Monday, that it destroyed two Russian patrol boats near the island of Serpentes in the Black Sea, which has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance since the start of the invasion by Moscow forces on February 24.
“Two Russian ships of the Raptor class were destroyed today near Snake Island,” the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaloghny wrote on Facebook in a post accompanied by a video. Watch two boats hit by two separate missiles.
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“Bayraktar is working,” he said, referring to the use of this combat drone in these two strikes in Turkey.
Moscow has not confirmed the information on its part.
Russian patrol boats of the Raptor class are among the fastest shuttles in the Russian Navy, reaching a maximum speed of 90 km / h.
It can carry up to 20 soldiers plus a crew of three.
Snake Island has become a symbol in Ukraine since the radio exchange, which went viral on social networks, in which Ukrainian border guards on the first day of the conflict shouted “Damn you, Russian military ship!” to the Russian cruiser Moskva, who urged them to surrender.
Shortly after this exchange, the ship bombed the island, the Russians took control of it, and the Ukrainian soldiers were captured. They were later released in a prisoner exchange with Moscow.
The recording of this verbal exchange was a leitmotif of the Ukrainian resistance, and the oppression of the border guards even appeared on banners during demonstrations of support abroad, and on Ukrainian stamps.
Kyiv said the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, sank in mid-April after being hit by Ukrainian missiles. Moscow, for its part, claimed that it was damaged by an explosion on board.
