Ukrainian military intelligence disabled two Russian Black Sea Fleet landing ships worth $150M in Sevastopol Bay overnight on 20 April 2026, adding a radar station to the toll.
KYIV — Ukraine's Defence Intelligence directorate disabled two Russian Black Sea Fleet landing ships in Sevastopol Bay on the night of 20 April 2026, striking both vessels with maritime drones in an operation that also destroyed a radar installation on the occupied peninsula's western coast.
The directorate released video of the strike on its official Telegram channel early Tuesday. Drone-mounted cameras showed impacts on both vessels — the Yamal and the Nikolai Filchenkov — as fires spread across their superstructures. "Both ships have been rendered inoperable and cannot fulfil combat tasks," the directorate stated in a 21 April release. Russia confirmed the attack through state media, acknowledging damage to "floating infrastructure" in Sevastopol without specifying the extent.
The Yamal, a Project 775 vessel commissioned in 1988, measures 112.5 metres in length and is rated for a combat cargo load of up to 500 tonnes, including armoured vehicles, artillery, and up to 300 troops. Its estimated replacement value exceeds $80 million. The Nikolai Filchenkov, a Project 1171 landing ship built in 1975, carries up to 1,000 tonnes of cargo or vehicles. Naval News, which tracks open-source fleet valuations, placed the combined market replacement cost of the two ships at approximately $150 million. The Podlet-K1 radar station destroyed in the same operation was estimated at $5 million.
“Its estimated replacement value exceeds $80 million.”
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Ukraine war 2026 · Russia Black Sea Fleet · Sevastopol strike
The Sevastopol strike fits a pattern of systematic Ukrainian pressure on Russian amphibious capability in Crimea that has intensified since January 2026. Ukraine first demonstrated the vulnerability of Black Sea Fleet surface ships in April 2022, when it sank the guided-missile cruiser Moskva. Since then, Ukrainian forces have damaged or destroyed at least 11 major Russian naval vessels through combinations of long-range missiles, maritime surface drones, and, increasingly, aerial drone swarms operating without line-of-sight control. The strikes have progressively reduced Russia's ability to use Crimea as a staging point for large-scale amphibious operations along Ukraine's southern coast.
Key Takeaways
→Ukraine war 2026: Ukraine's Defence Intelligence directorate struck the Yamal (a Project 775 landing ship built in 1988, valued at over $80 million) and the Nikolai Filchenkov (a Project 1171 landing ship built in 1975).
→Russia Black Sea Fleet: Ukraine's Defence Intelligence directorate struck the Yamal (a Project 775 landing ship built in 1988, valued at over $80 million) and the Nikolai Filchenkov (a Project 1171 landing ship built in 1975).
→Sevastopol strike: Ukraine's Defence Intelligence directorate struck the Yamal (a Project 775 landing ship built in 1988, valued at over $80 million) and the Nikolai Filchenkov (a Project 1171 landing ship built in 1975).
→Crimea military: Ukraine's Defence Intelligence directorate struck the Yamal (a Project 775 landing ship built in 1988, valued at over $80 million) and the Nikolai Filchenkov (a Project 1171 landing ship built in 1975).
Ukrainian military officials framed the 20 April operation as part of the ongoing campaign to degrade Russia's ability to reinforce the peninsula. Landing ships are critical to Russia's logistics in Crimea: with Ukrainian forces having targeted the Kerch Bridge in multiple previous strikes, sea transport remains the primary heavy-load route connecting the peninsula to mainland Russia. "Every landing ship removed from the equation reduces Russia's ability to move armour and ammunition into Crimea under fire," a senior Ukrainian defence official said, speaking on background to The Kyiv Independent on 21 April.
Ukraine war 2026 · Russia Black Sea Fleet · Sevastopol strike
The overnight operation occurred on the same night that Russian forces launched 7,767 kamikaze drones and conducted 2,916 artillery shelling attacks against Ukrainian positions across multiple front sectors, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces general staff daily briefing for 20 April 2026. Three civilians were killed and 26 injured in the Russian attacks, with strikes recorded in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Over 206 combat engagements were logged in a single 24-hour period, making it one of the most intense days of fighting in April.
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Not all analysts read the Sevastopol strike as a strategic turning point. Michael Kofman, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted on 21 April that Russia has previously compensated for Black Sea Fleet attrition by rotating vessels from its Caspian Flotilla through the Volga-Don canal. "These strikes are operationally significant, but Russia has shown consistent ability to absorb Black Sea Fleet losses without fundamentally changing its posture," Kofman wrote. He pointed to the February 2026 transfer of two Caspian landing ships as evidence that Moscow had anticipated further Crimea-based losses and pre-positioned replacements.
Ukrainian intelligence has been tracking potential replacement vessel movements since February 2026. The directorate said Tuesday that it identified two additional Russian landing ships in the lower Volga near Astrakhan that appear ready for Volga-Don transit. That transfer, which takes roughly two weeks to complete, would be the clearest signal that Moscow intends to reconstitute its Sevastopol amphibious capability rather than accept permanent degradation. The directorate said it would "take appropriate action" if a transit is confirmed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly address on 20 April, said Russia's oil and military infrastructure had suffered at least $2.3 billion in losses during March 2026 from long-range Ukrainian drone strikes — a figure he framed as evidence that Ukraine's deep-strike campaign was "slowly bankrupting the Russian war machine." The Sevastopol operation added an estimated $155 million to that running toll on the same day he spoke.
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Which Russian ships were hit in Sevastopol on 20 April 2026?
Ukraine's Defence Intelligence directorate struck the Yamal (a Project 775 landing ship built in 1988, valued at over $80 million) and the Nikolai Filchenkov (a Project 1171 landing ship built in 1975). Both vessels were rendered inoperable. A Podlet-K1 radar station worth roughly $5 million was also destroyed in the same operation.
Why does Ukraine target Russian ships in Crimea?
Russian landing ships are critical to logistics in Crimea. With the Kerch Bridge damaged in previous strikes, sea transport is the primary route for moving heavy armour and ammunition from mainland Russia to the peninsula. Disabling landing ships reduces Russia's ability to reinforce Crimea and launch amphibious operations along Ukraine's southern coast.
Can Russia replace the ships it loses in Black Sea Fleet strikes?
Russia has previously compensated for losses by transferring vessels from its Caspian Flotilla through the Volga-Don canal, a transit that takes approximately two weeks. Ukrainian intelligence identified two replacement landing ships near Astrakhan as of 21 April 2026 and said it would act if a transfer is confirmed. Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes Russia has consistently replaced damaged Black Sea Fleet assets since 2022.
