Although the “Kommuna” lifeboat has a history of 110 years, it is still in active service today. part of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, making it the oldest ship in service in the Russian Navy. In addition, it does not only operate as a “decorative ship”, it has been observed several times near the Crimean coast and probably participated in the unsuccessful rescue of the flagship, the Moscow.
On Sunday, however, the Ukrainian side reported – and OSINT analysts later geolocalized and identified it based on the footage of the attack – that it struck the catamaran anchored in the port of Sevastopol with a long-range missile.
The ship its foundations were laid in 1912, during Tsarist Russia, then still called Volhov. Its task was to rescue submarines in trouble, in 1917, for example, it raised sunken Russian ships twice.
The “Kommuna” is a catamaran, i.e. a two-hull ship, with parallel hulls and equal lengths. In addition, the rescue ship also has a lifting frame between the two hulls, where the submarines in trouble were raised.
After the communist revolution of 1917, it was renamed served at the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War. In 1974, it was also equipped with a deep-sea diving vessel.
During its service, the rescue ship lifted more than 150 sunken objects, including ten submarines, from the foam.
Today, unfortunately, it served in the Black Sea Fleet, where it was mainly used to receive deep-sea submarines and remote-controlled drones.
According to official news reports, after the Ukrainian-made Neptune ship was hit by a missile, the ship’s current condition is unknown, and the damage assessment is still ongoing. However, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the catamaran in its current state is not suitable for carrying out missions – and it could easily be that this was the last task of the 110-year-old rescue ship.
Cover image source: Wikimedia Commons
Tags: Ukrainian Neptune missile struck Russias legendary pride met
