Doubt the Russian ship has undergone the extensive PM and retrofitting the U.S. carrier fleet does.
The ship was sitting in port, unfit to get underway because it needed repairs that required parts that were unavailable due to sanctions. It was damaged in a prior attack. It was removed from action 24 August 2022, almost a year and a half ago.
The strategic value of a ship that cannot get underway until after the war is, to say the least, questionable. Its greatest value was as a distraction to divert attention from the disaster in Maryinka.
Novocherkassk at 320 feet is not a very large ship. It is dwarfed by a Zumwalt class destroyer at 505 feet, not to mention aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford at over 1100 feet.
Russians claimed one fatality. That sounds reasonable. One would not expect a full crew, but one security guard is more likely. It would not have held a full load of equipment either.
It was an important ship to the shrinking Black Sea fleet. The secondary explosions went on for a long time so that ship was packed.
But you say a destroyed small town in the Donbas was of more importance. Hhmmmm, that is a difficult case to make.
Agree with your assessment. As mentioned before, this is part of the propaganda war. Ukraine needs some successes to keep the money and weapons spigot open. The Biden Administration’s $62 billion budget request for Ukraine is stuck in the House. A vote in the House will be held next month.
Support for the war is declining in Europe and the US. The longer it goes on, the less the support. With a $2 trillion budget deficit this calendar year and over $800 billion in annual debt servicing costs (greater than DOD’s annual budget), we cannot afford these endless wars that don’t involve our strategic national interests. This fiscal year we will have another huge budget deficit and over $1 trillion in interest payments. Government spending is out of control.
Our woke military is experiencing significant recruitment and retention problems. The war in Ukraine is weakening us. America first.