Ukraine's military has claimed responsibility for a fire on a Russian ship belonging to Vladimir Putin’s Baltic fleet.
Knewz.com has learned that the act of sabotage was executed with the help of a Russian defector who exfiltrated Kaliningrad where the ship was docked, and was spirited into Ukraine with a trove of intelligence.
operators from the espionage program supporting Russian defectors, “I Want to Live”, waited while the saboteur known only as Goga fed Ukraine information.
When the clandestine operation became too risky for the mole, he set fire to the 242-foot Serpukhov missile corvette and escaped into Ukraine on April 8.
According to a report by the Kyiv Independent, the fire destroyed the vessel’s communication capabilities in its entirety.
Speaking at the Ukrinform military conference (via TVP News) on July 3, Andrei Yusov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Military intelligence shed light on the operation, saying:
“In early April of this year, there was information about an incident, smoke at the small missile ship Serpukhov, which is part of the Baltic Fleet and is based in the city of Baltiysk,” per TVP News.
“Now we can say that it was part of Operation ‘Rybalka,’ [fishing trip] which lasted from 2023.”
Yusov continued to say that “a large amount of important information,” landed in the hands of Ukraine’s intelligence services and that “the modern small missile vessel Serpukhov, which was put on combat duty in 2015, [was] disabled for at least six months.”
“The enemy does not fully understand what we received, what we learned about,” Yusov claimed.
Before the attack, the bulk of Ukraine’s activities against the Russian Navy transpired in the Black Sea with varying levels of success—so much so that it imposed casualties on a third of the respective fleet.
Yosov confirmed this saying: “This is our first operation in the Baltic Fleet. For the enemy, it was a shock and a big surprise.”
“After this operation, there were reshuffles, investigations, and punishments in the Baltic Fleet. It is clear that some heads rolled.”
Around the time of the operation, Ukraine’s military intelligence released a statement hinting that it was well aware of what caused the fire and gave a vague description of the events leading up to the fire.
“Certain Russian citizens carried out this brave and risky operation, which caused serious damage to the Russian fleet and revealed the current state of the Russian army,” it stated, via the Kyiv Independent.
It also described the vessel as “disabled” following the attack, and noted that the communications and automations on board the embattled ship were “completely destroyed”.
At the time, the intelligence agency went as far as confirming its involvement in the blaze but gave no further details.
Goga who also spoke at the conference had this to say:
“Now I am in Ukraine. I will train and start fighting against (Vladimir) Putin's regime with weapons in my hands,” he told his audience.