According to a tweet published by Ukraineupdates on March 14, 2022, a Russian Navy's Ropucha-class landing ship would be next to the Ukrainian Snake Islands.
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Russian Ropucha-class landing ship and the Snake Island (Picture source: MAXAR)
The Ropucha class, Soviet designation Project 775, is a class of landing ships (large landing ship in Soviet classification) built in Poland for the Soviet Navy. The ships were built in Poland in the Stocznia Północna shipyards in Gdańsk.
Designed for beach landings, they can carry a 450-ton cargo. The ships have both bow- and stern-doors for loading and unloading vehicles, and the 630 square meters (6,800 sq ft) of vehicle deck stretches the length of the hull. Up to 25 armored personnel carriers can be embarked.
While designed for roll-on/roll-off operations, they can also be loaded using dockside cranes. For this purpose, there is a long sliding hatch cover above the bow section for access to the vehicle deck. There are no facilities for helicopters.
In total, 28 ships of this type were commissioned from 1975 to 1991. The last three ships were of the improved variant Project 775M, also called Ropucha II. These have improved defensive armament and accommodation for an increased number of troops.
