Patrol ship Vasily Bykov, 06.02.2022 by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Source: https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12407495@egNews
On March 16, Russian patrol boat Vasily Bykov was seen entering its base in Sevastopol despite all recent Ukrainian claims.
Ukrainian sources claimed on March 7 that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had attacked Vasily Bykov with a multiple rocket launcher system off the coast of Odessa, heavily damaging the patrol boat or even sinking it.
Ukrainian Navy officers later stated that the “boat was destroyed”. Ukrainian media even published videos which reportedly showed Vasily Bykov burning in the Black Sea.
However, the recent footage of Vasily Bykov near Sevastopol confirm that all of these unofficial and official claims were untrue. The patrol boat is not only still sailing on its power, but also has no visible damage whatsoever.
Per reports the patrol ship of the far sea zone “Vasily Bykov” of the Russn Navy returned to the port of Sevastopol.
Earlier in Kyiv, It was reported that ship was sunk as a result of a missile attack pic.twitter.com/21LC3M16M3
— OsintTv (@OsintTv) March 16, 2022
Vasily Bykov was the first project 22160 patrol boat of the Russian Navy. It was laid down on 26 February 2014 on the Zelenodolsk Shipyard at Zelenodolsk in Tatarstan and launched on 28 August 2017. The patrol boat was commissioned on 20 December 2018 in the Novorossiysk Naval Base at Novorossiysk, becoming part of the Black Sea Fleet.
Two other project 22160 patrol boats are currently in active service with the Russian Navy, Dmitriy Rogachev and Zelenodolsk Shipyard.
Project 22160 patrol boats are armed with a 76.2 mm AK-176MA automatic dual-purpose gun and two 14.5 mm MTPU machine guns. The boats are also equipped with a landing pad for naval helicopters.
Vasily Bykov has been apparently a part of the naval force supporting the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, which started on February 24.
