Ukraine was struck by the Russian ship "Traveler in time": 111-year-old ship-a veteran of three wars-forbes

The submarines of the Black Sea Fleet largely depended on the important support of the rescue ship that lifted the sunken vessels and crew. The Savior Navy's rescue vessel was lowered to the water in 1913. It served as an imperial, Soviet and, ultimately, Russian fleet. It has experienced two world wars. And today it is the oldest warship in the world that are used in the front line. Forbes writes about it. According to journalists, to name the 111-year-old ship lucky-to say nothing.

But, apparently, last Sunday, luck has changed him. According to the statements of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the 96-meter "commune" was struck by the winged rocket "Neptune" of Ukrainian production, when the rescue ship stood at an anchor in Sevastopol. It is unclear how serious the damage is, but even because of moderate damage, the old vessel can be failed for months or years. "Another bad day for the Russian Black Sea Fleet," the Ukrainian defense department was joked.

Particularly difficult day for the flotilla of Russian submarines, whose operations depended largely on the support of the Commune. In total, in 26 months of heavy battles, the Russian fleet lost almost a third of the pre-war composition: cruisers, submarine, supply ship, several patrol boats, two rocket corvettes and at least six landing ships, not to mention the rare A-50 aircraft. But the damage suffered by the Commune may be the most tangible.

The Russian Federation cannot immediately replace any of the large ships that the fleet loses after the attacks of Ukraine, because the path to the Black Sea for any ship is only one, and the shallow rivers of the Volga and the Don can not pass. Turkey does not pass through the Bosphorus warships, according to the Montre Convention. The Commune is indispensable in many senses. She is a "traveler in time" from the past era. A museum exhibit, which, oddly enough, is used through several generations.

Having lost it - temporarily or irreversibly - the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation also loses the most important potential. "Commune" is essentially a two -corpus catamaran with a large open space in the middle. With it, the sailors are lowered to the water and lifting rescue submarines or fragments of sunken vessels.

When a couple of Ukrainian rockets were buried by the Russian cruiser "Moscow" in the western part of the Black Sea in April 2022, the Commune and its mini-underground AC-28 was reported to raise the parts of the sunken ship and the body of the crew of the cruiser. "Commune" is a valuable historical artifact, but it does not have a special status in the war zone. "Objectively, it is a legitimate goal," said Naval expert H. I. Satton.