As Russia continues its advance on Ukraine’s southern Black Sea-facing flank, it appears that the Ukrainian Navy is taking no chances in providing Moscow with a major battlefield trophy — the flagship of its fleet, the Hetman Sahaidachny (U130).

An image of the ship sitting half-submerged on its side appeared on social media on March 3rd, 2022. It seems that the vessel was sunk on purpose in order to keep it from falling into the enemy’s hands. It’s also possible this occurred due to Russian action, but that seems less likely at this time.

While the 3,100-ton displacement Krivak III/Menzhinskiy class frigate offers little in terms of significant combat capabilities to the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet, its seizure would be a major propaganda win for Moscow that could act as a symbolic morale boost for Russian forces.

Ukrainian authorities confirmed that Ukrainian sailors sank the flagship of the Ukrainian fleet “Hetman Sagaydachny” in the port of Nikolaev.

The Hetman Sagaidachny frigate as a combat unit is not of particular value, since it is devoid of missile weapons, the ship is actually a modification of the Soviet project 1135 and carried out the protection of border areas. The ship entered service on April 2, 1993. In May 2017, the frigate went out of service due to an engine failure almost immediately after the repair work.

At the end of 2021, an agreement was signed for the repair and modernization of the frigate. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security under the Government of Ukraine said that they plan to quickly raise and repair it after the sinking of the ship. The flagship of the Ukrainian Navy, the frigate Hetman Sagaidachny, was sunk on the first day of the Russian special operation in Ukraine.

source thedrive.com

Supposedly the first image of Ukrainian Navy flagship Hetman Sahaidachny (U130) scuttled in Nikolaev.@RALee85 @CovertShores @OSINTEng pic.twitter.com/R3ECQsqA10

— Granger (@GrangerE04117) March 3, 2022