Ropucha-class landing ship

The landing ship Georgiy Pobedonosec on exercises in the Barents Sea

BDK Alexander Shabalin

Most of the ships became part of the Russian Navy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They were used for landing troops at the Georgian port of Poti during the 2008 South Ossetia war and for deliveries of cargo during the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war.

One ship of the class was delivered to South Yemen in 1979 and served the Yemeni Navy until 2002, before it was sold as a civilian cargo named Sam of Yemen. It was the only unit of this class in service outside the former Soviet Union.

On 3 August 2012, international media reported that three vessels of the class, Aleksandr Otrakovskiy, Georgiy Pobedonosets and Kondopoga would visit the Russian naval base in Tartus, Syria. The ships were part of the Northern Fleet. Earlier reports, quoting a source at the Russian general staff, said the ships would spend a few days in Tartus and would take on fresh supplies of food and water. British media added that the ships each had up to 120 marines on board.[2][3]

The Russian defence ministry left open the possibility that the ships might dock there at some point for logistical reasons, saying they had every right to do so. The General Staff source, who was not named, had said that after calling in at Tartus they would head for the Bosporus and the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.[2][4]

From 2013 on, ten Ropucha-class ships, gathered from all four Russian fleets, were used to transport military equipment from Novorosiysk to Tartus in Syria, during an intervention in Syrian civil war, along with Ropucha-class ships.[5]

All ships of the Russia's Black Sea Fleet, namely Caesar Kunikov, Novocherkassk, Yamal and Azov were modernized with installation of the Tsentavr-NM2S, Auriga and Cobham SAILOR satellite phones.[6]

Operations during the Russo-Ukrainian War

A PT-76 amphibious tank leaving a Project 775 ship at the bow gate

The Ukrainian Navy's only ship of the class, Kostiantyn Olshansky, was seized by Russian troops and accepted into service with the Russian Navy after the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in March 2014.[7]

In February 2022 prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the landing ships Korolev, Minsk, Kaliningrad, Pyotr Morgunov, Georgy Pobedonosets, and Olenegorsky Gornyak from the Baltic and Northern fleets departed their bases and passed through the Dardanelles Strait for exercises in the Black Sea.[8][9][10]

In early August 2023, Olenegorsky Gornyak was seriously damaged at the Black Sea Novorossiysk naval base after it was struck by a Ukrainian maritime drone carrying 450 kilograms (990 lb) of TNT.[11] The ship was pictured under tow, listing 40–50 degrees to port as tugboats worked to put it in a safe position.[12][13]

On 13 September 2023, Russian military reported that the Sevastopol Shipyard had been struck by an Ukrainian missile attack, damaging the Ropucha-class landing ship Minsk and the Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don.[14][15][16][17] The UK Ministry of Defence assessed Minsk as being "functionally destroyed" as a result of the attack with a greater than 95% probability.[18][19]

• List of ships of the Soviet Navy
• List of ships of Russia by project number
• List of active Russian Navy ships

• Polmar, Norman (1991). The Naval Institute Guide to the Soviet Navy (5th ed.). Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute. pp. 217–218. ISBN 9780870212413 – via Google Books.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ropucha class landing ship.

• Russian Littoral Warfare Ships at Hazegray.org
• Yemeni Navy at Hazegray.org
• All Ropucha Class Landing Ships - Complete Ship List at Russianships.info