New photos emerged early Friday on social media showing Russia’s Buyan-M-class corvette, reportedly the Velikiy Ustyug, “slightly” damaged in an attack by Ukrainian Forces off the Odesa coast.
The images show the Velikiy Ustyug corvette redeploying from the Azov Sea to Caspian for repairs. Apparently, the warship was seriously damaged due to artillery fire from the BM-21 Grad system in March.
The Buyan-M-class corvette (pr 21631) is armed with Kalibr missiles. The ships are primarily designed for operations within littoral zones to protect Russia’s vast coastal areas. Due to the small tonnage, they can operate even within shallow parts of oceans and seas and Russia’s river system.
Besides, the corvettes are armed with 100mm artillery guns A-190 and small-caliber antiaircraft artillery AK-630-2 Duet complexes. They also carry launchers of the Gibka 3M-47 complex. The length of the corvette is 75 meters, the displacement is 949 tons, the speed is 25 knots. Autonomous navigation is ten days, the range is 2.5 thousand miles. The crew comprises 52 men.
Some sources claim that the ship was damaged in an incident while mooring and is deploying to the Caspian Sea to participate in a naval parade.
Russian officials denied that one of its warships was damaged, but new photos confirm that the corvette received numerous shrapnel damage consistent with multiple rocket launchers.
Kremlin has repeatedly tried to hide the fact of the attack on its ships, including the cruiser Moskva.