Missile-armed Russian Tugboat Sinks in Black Sea After Ukrainian Hit

Russia's Vasily Bekh tugboat, armed with missiles, sank in the Black Sea after being hit by the Ukrainian military on June 17.

Maksym Marchenko, head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, made an announcement regarding the same on Telegram.

"This morning, our Navy struck the Black Sea Fleet's support vessel Vasily Bekh, equipped with a Tor air defense missile system. It later emerged that it had sunk," he said in a video address.

Marchenko said he hopes that the Ukrainian military would create an "underwater (Russian) brigade of ships at the bottom of the Black Sea."

The Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement that the vessel was hit by two Western-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missiles.

Ukraine's Armed Forces Strategic Communications Directorate published a video Friday purporting to show two missiles striking the ship from the air.

The tugboat was reportedly transporting supplies to Snake Island, a remote island off the coast of Ukraine occupied by Russia since the first day of its invasion that has become a focal point of the conflict.

The claims have yet to be verified. If confirmed, the Vasiliy Bekh would be at least the 14th Russian vessel damaged or destroyed since February 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

Built at the Astrakhan shipyard, the Vasily Bekh tugboat with a displacement of 1,605 tonnes joined the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2017.