Two ships fugitives from the Black Sea spotted in the Caspian Sea

During the celebration of the Russian Navy’s Day, two missile ships were spotted in the Caspian Sea, escaping from the Black Sea.

Screenshots of these ships were published by Andrii Haruk on the BlogSpot platform.

The video of the celebrations, which took place on Sunday, July 28, showed, in particular, two Project 22800 Karakurt-class corvettes (small missile ships) Amur and Tucha.

Both ships were built at the JSC Zelenodolsk Shipyard for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. After being launched, they arrived in the Black Sea for completion and testing.

However, in early May, it turned out that the Russians had withdrawn them from the Black Sea, apparently fearing their loss to Ukrainian missile strikes or kamikaze naval drones.

OSINT analyst MT Anderson detected the Karakurt-class corvette Tucha on satellite images of the Russian naval base in the Caspian Sea.

Now it turned out that this base of the Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy also has the Karakurt-class corvette Amur, which received the number 646, as previously reported by Russian propaganda sites.

As previously reported, a missile strike by the Ukrainian Air Force in early November last year hit the Russian Askold corvette at the Zatoka shipyard in Kerch in the temporarily occupied Crimea. The invaders intended to launch this Karakurt-class corvette and introduce it into the Russian Black Sea Fleet in December 2023.

However, even the presence of these ships in the Caspian Sea allows them to use Kalibr cruise missiles to strike at the territory of Ukraine.

Project 22800 Karakurt

The basis of strike capabilities is Kalibr-NK family missiles, which include cruise missiles for striking surface and ground targets. Eight rocket launchers are at the rear of the superstructure behind the wheelhouse. The ship’s launcher is also capable of launching Oniks and Zircon missiles.

The artillery armament of the ships of this project includes АК-176МА 76.2-mm automatic dual-purpose guns, two АК-630М six-barreled 30-mm guns, and two Kord 12.7-mm machine guns. The anti-aircraft defense of the ship is provided by a naval version of the Pantsir-ME anti-aircraft missile systems.

At the beginning of June this year, a large group of Russian warships was withdrawn from Novorossiysk.