Ukrainian armed forces on Friday identified a large Russian amphibious ship they said they destroyed in the port of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine the day before.
According to CNN, the port, which was recently seized by Russian forces with several Russian warships docked, was rocked by a series of powerful explosions shortly after dawn on Thursday.
Videos on social media showed fires raging on the dock, with a series of secondary explosions reverberating across the city.
The Ukrainian armed forces on Friday named the ship "Saratov". In earlier reports, the ship was called "Orsk".
In a statement, the armed forces said: "In the operational zone of Azov, according to updated information, a large landing ship "Saratov" was destroyed during the attack on the occupied port of Berdyansk. The large landing ships "Caesar Kunikov" and "Novocherkassk" were also damaged. Other enemy losses are specified."
Several Russian ships have been unloading military equipment in Berdyansk in recent days, according to reports from the port by Russian media.
The United States said Ukraine likely carried out a successful attack on Russian ships in Berdyansk, according to a defense official, although it was unclear what kind of weapon or weapons were used in the attack.
It followed a similar statement from Britain's Ministry of Defense, which said Ukrainian forces had attacked "high-value targets" in Russian-held areas of Ukraine, including an amphibious assault ship and ammunition depots in Berdyansk.
Analysis of the videos uploaded on Thursday showed that a Russian navy ship left the port immediately after the explosions.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not made an official comment on the explosion.
Berdyansk is located on the Sea of Azov and is about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southwest of Mariupol. The city has a small naval base and a population of about 100,000.
Russian troops first occupied Berdyansk's government buildings on February 27, three days after the start of the Russian invasion.
Mariupol still eludes Russian control, despite being surrounded and pounded mercilessly, "square-by-square," by Russian firepower.
Its defenders rejected an ultimatum to surrender by Monday morning, blocking a Russian effort to finalize a land bridge linking Crimea to the separatist republics of the eastern Donbass region.
Russia bombarded Mariupol from the Sea of Azov, according to a senior US defense official, using a group of about seven ships to launch attacks on the critical coastal city.
Further west, Ukrainians are fighting to retake the city of Kherson, as well as pushing Russian forces northeast of Mykolayiv, "forcing them to redeploy south of the city," a senior US defense official said on Tuesday.
The official cautioned that the U.S. cannot say whether these moves are part of a "larger operational plan" by the Ukrainians, but called Ukrainian defenses "flexible and nimble."
