The fire on the small missile ship "Serpukhov", which occurred in April of this year, was a special operation of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (known as GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in coordination with the Legion "Freedom of Russia" — a unit consisting of Russian volunteers and fighting on the side of Ukraine.
Representatives of the Legion and GUR (Andrii Yusov) gave a press conference, during which they told the details of the operation, Radio Svoboda and the press service of the Legion reported.
The arson on board the ship was set by a Russian military man who has been cooperating with Ukrainian special services since 2023. Currently, he is a recruit of the Legion "Freedom of Russia" with the call sign "Goga". He served in the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Federation and, as he claims, wanted to be released because of Russiaʼs war of aggression against Ukraine, so he turned to the GUR project "Want to live". Since then, the military has collected important data because it had access to classified information.
When the risk of exposure was already too high, they decided to plan a diversion. "Goga" started a fire inside the ship, which damaged the equipment and communication. Then he was sent to Ukraine.
"Goga"
- The ship "Serpukhov" burned on April 7, when it was standing in the city of Baltiysk (Kaliningrad region). GUR stated that the fire completely destroyed communication and automation, so the repair of the ship will be long. No details were reported then, but they showed a short video with a plan of the ship and the moment the equipment was set on fire.
- "Serpukhov" of project 21631 "Buyan-M" is a fairly new ship. It was launched in 2015. It is armed with “Kalibr” and “Onyx” cruise missiles, which the Russian Federation uses to attack Ukraine.