Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 11:10
The Russians assaulted and captured the landing ship Konstyantin Olshanskiy in the Lake of Donuzlav. The assault began at 17:15, the ship’s captain Dmytro Kovalenko told Ukrainska Pravda. “Here they go”, he said.
At the same time, Oleksandr Hutnyk, the senior miner of the artillery mine and torpedo combat unit, who is a senior sailor of the ship Cherkassy, which is in the same lake, told Ukrainska Pravda that as of 17:22 the landing ship was enveloped in smoke and she was being approached by a Russian motor launch.
According to the head of the Media Center of the MOD of Ukraine in Crimea Vladyslav Seleznyov, “Olshanskiy let out two smokescreens.”
As of 17:44, there were 21 people aboard the Olshanskiy. About 200 people arrived and stepped aboard, the crew locked themselves in the messdeck, said Oleksiy Tamrazov . He said that flash bang grenades and assault rifle rounds could be heard.
At 17:50, Olshanskyy was captured. “That is all … There is no more Olshanskyy,” Tamrazov wrote.
As of 18:07, the Ukrainian officers were brought out to the stern of the ship, according to the head of the Media Center of the MOD of Ukraine in Crimea Vladyslav Seleznyov.
“10 crew members sang the anthem of Ukraine, while the Ukrainian naval ensign was lowered on the ship. People who gathered ashore cried: “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes! Olshanskiy you are heroes!” he wrote.
Earlier on Monday, most of the crew from the landing ship Konstyantin Olshanskiy went ashore but did not take the Russian side.
20 people stayed on board. In March 2011, Olshanskiy sailed about two hundred citizens of Ukraine and other countries from the midst of the military conflict in Libya. Olshanskyy was a landing ship of our marines.
The original news in Ukrainian is on the Ukrainska Pravda website:
