In another example of the fog of war and the myths that have emerged around the conflict in Ukraine, video footage and pictures appeared online today showing the Russian Navy's Project 22160 patrol ship Vasiliy Bykov sailing into the port of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula without any visible damage.
The Ukrainian military reportedly severely damaged, if not sunk this vessel in the Black Sea more than a week ago using unguided artillery rockets fired from the shore. A video purportedly of Vasiliy Bykov burning after the supposed attack may actually show a commercial ship that was seriously damaged by an errant Russian missile early in the conflict and that remains on fire in the Black Sea nearly three weeks later.
Vasiliy Bykov had been involved in the Russian military's assault on Ukraine's Zmiinyi Island, or Snake Island, in the western Black Sea. The Ukrainian defenders there had attained an almost legendary status after audio emerged of them refusing a demand to surrender and responding instead with the now-iconic phrase "Russian warship, go fuck yourself!" The 13 Ukrainian border guards stationed on Snake Island were initially presumed to have been killed in an ensuing attack, though this later turned out not to be the case, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had quickly announced he would honor them as Heroes of Ukraine. So, sinking, or even seriously damaging this ship would have had clear additional propaganda value as a direct act of vengeance.
Still, from the very beginning, there were questions about the likelihood of shore-based short-range, unguided artillery rocket systems being able to hit a relatively small target, at least by ship standards, sailing out in the Black Sea.
There is the possibility that the Russian Navy could have repainted one of the other two Project 22160 patrol ships, either the Dmitriy Rogachev or the Pavel Derzhavin, to conceal the loss of Vasily Bykov. However, comparisons between the imagery of the ship today and of it from before March 7 suggest that this is not the case.
There's no indication, one way or another, that the video of the burning ship offshore that is associated with the claimed attack on Vasily Bykov was fabricated. In fact, it seems more likely than not that the video, at its core, is legitimate, though it may show another vessel on fire.
On February 25, a day after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, the Moldovan-flagged chemical tanker MV Millennial Spirit was reportedly struck by a Russian missile in the western end of the Black Sea some 18 miles southeast of the Ukrainian port city of Odesa. That incident reportedly left two members of the ship's 12-person crew, all of who were Russian nationals, seriously injured. Video footage, seen below, subsequently emerged showing the ship ablaze and emitting the same kind of thick black smoke seen in the video purportedly of the damaged Vasiliy Bykov.