2022 – Ukraine’s military says US Harpoon missiles destroyed a heavily armed Russian ship in the Black Sea

• Ukrainian officials said they attacked a Russian tugboat in the Black Sea on Friday with two Harpoon missiles.
• This is the first time that Ukraine has announced that it destroyed a Russian ship with weapons supplied by the West.
• A Ukrainian military statement said the bayonets used were given to Ukraine by the United States.

The Ukrainian military said it attacked the Russian Navy’s tugboat Vasily Bykh in the Black Sea with two Harpoon missiles supplied by the United States.

This is the first time that Ukraine has announced that it destroyed a Russian ship with weapons supplied by the West.

On Friday, the attack on the Strategic Communications Directorate of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was announced via the Telegram channel. It posted a video allegedly showing an anti-ship missile blowing up the ship. Insider was unable to independently verify the footage.

The head of the Odessa Regional Military Administration, Maxim Marchenko, said: “This morning our Navy attacked the Black Sea Fleet support vessel Vasily Bek with the TOR anti-aircraft missile system. It was later revealed that it had sunk.”

The Ukrainian military claimed that Vasily Bek also transported ammunition, weapons and personnel to Snek Island for the Black Sea Fleet.

Later news reported that Harpoon anti-ship missiles, made by Boeing Defense, Space & Security, had been shipped to Ukraine as part of a multi-billion dollar aid package sponsored by President Joe Biden.

On June 15, the US Department of Defense said it would also supply truck-mounted machine guns to bolster Ukraine’s coastal defences.

In addition to American missiles, Ukraine developed its own naval weapons and used them to devastating effect. In April, Ukrainian forces sank the Russian warship Moskva, the battleship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, with at least one of the homemade Neptune missiles.