Russia destroyed Ukraine's 'last warship' in Black Sea missile attack, defense ministry said

• The Ukrainian Navy's "last warship" was destroyed, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said.
• The Yuriy Olefirenko was hit with "high-precision weapons" in the port of Odesa, Russia claimed.

Russian forces said they destroyed Ukraine's "last warship" in the port of Odesa, Russia's defense ministry claimed earlier this week.

"The last warship of the Ukrainian navy, the Yuriy Olefirenko, was destroyed at a warship mooring in the port of Odesa," said the Russian Defence Ministry Spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, per The Telegraph.

Russia said the Yuriy Olefirenko was hit on Monday with missiles, which Konashenkov called "high-precision weapons," per Reuters.

Although Ukraine has not yet confirmed what happened, it admitted that heavy Russian airstrikes damaged the Odesa port infrastructure on Monday.

The claims on both sides have not been immediately verified.

Russia has rarely targeted the port after signing the UN-backed Black Sea Grain Initiative last year. The deal allowed Ukraine to resume grain exports passing through the sea to help mitigate a global food crisis since Russia's invasion.

The Yuriy Olefirenko, a Soviet-era landing ship, may have previously played an "important role" in Ukrainian operations, according to Forbes, particularly last year during the liberation of Kherson — a city near the Black Sea coast on the Dnipro River.

The warship may have supported Ukrainian missions on the Kinburn Spit, a three-mile finger-like strip stretching into the Black Sea where it meets the Dnipro River.

Whichever side holds the piece of land can control ship traffic between the ports of Kherson and Mykolaiv and the Black Sea, per Forbes.

Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson last November. Russian and Ukrainian troops are fighting a deadly battle on the islands, marshes, and inlets of the Dnipro delta nearby, Insider recently reported.

One expert, however, believes the possible destruction of the ship has "almost no impact on the offensive potential of Ukraine's Navy," Frederik Mertens, an analyst at the Hague Center for Strategic Studies, told Newsweek in an interview.

The vessel, built in 1970, can only carry around four Ukrainian tanks, whereas a similar, larger ship deployed in the 20th century could carry four times that amount, Mertens said.