Ukrainian drones reportedly sank a new Russian warship in the Black Sea on Tuesday, the latest in a series of strikes that have crippled Moscow’s naval capabilities and limited its operations.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Ukrainian naval drones attacked the patrol ship Sergei Kotov, off the coast of the city of Feodosia in Crimea, near the Kerch Strait which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The attack, which could not be independently verified, killed seven members of the Russian crew and injured six others, while 52 people were rescued, according to Kyiv.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on the claim, but some Russian military bloggers confirmed the loss of the ship and claimed that its crew had been rescued.
This attack, if verified, would mark the latest successful use of Magura drones produced in Ukraine, these agile unmanned boats, which have become a scourge for the Russian navy. Drones sank last month Russian amphibious landing ship Tsezar Kounikov And the Ivanovets missile corvette. The Russian military has also not acknowledged these losses, but they have been reported by Russian military bloggers and some media outlets.
Series of Ukrainian naval attacks
In another attack in late December, Ukraine said it destroyed the landing ship Novocherkassk in the port of Feodosia, Crimea, using long-range cruise missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry said the ship was damaged in the attack, but Russian war bloggers claimed it was lost.
The Ukrainian military also launched a series of persistent cruise missile and drone strikes on Russian radar installations, air defense assets and air bases in Crimea, almost 10 years after the illegal annexation of Crimea attached to Moscow on March 18, 2014. Ukrainian troops also shot down two Russian warning and control planes over the Sea of Azov in January and February, depriving the Russian military of some of its most valuable intelligence-gathering assets.
These strikes follow other highly effective Ukrainian attacks carried out earlier in the war, including the sinking, in April 2022, of the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Black Sea Fleetand a missile attack last September on the fleet headquarters in the port of Sevastopol.
The effective use of remotely controlled drone boats loaded with explosives allowed Ukraine to tip the scales of naval warfare in its favor, despite Russia’s enormous superiority in firepower. Magura drones are equipped with advanced GPS and cameras, and their weak radar signature makes them difficult to detect.
Maritime arsenal
Its latest version, the Magura V5, measures 5.5 meters long, weighs up to 1,000 kilograms and has a range of 800 kilometers, an autonomy of 60 hours and a payload of 200 kilograms, according to Ukrainian authorities. It also transmits live video images to operators.
Ukraine also relied on cruise missiles supplied by the United Kingdom and France to strike Russian facilities in Crimea. These missiles, produced jointly by Britain and France and named Storm Shadow by the United Kingdom and SCALP-EG by France, are launched from Soviet-era Ukrainian warplanes and have a range of more than 250 kilometers.
Western officials hail the effectiveness of Ukraine’s attacks, noting that kyiv cleverly used its limited resources to defeat far more powerful Russian forces and destroy between 20 and 30 percent of the Black Sea Fleet, effectively reducing Ukraine’s naval dominance. Moscow.
Successful strikes on Russian naval assets have allowed Ukraine to increase its exports of food and other products from the Black Sea, despite Russia’s withdrawal last summer from a deal that guaranteed security of Ukrainian grain shipment.
Moscow’s withdrawal from the agreement was accompanied by attacks on ships carrying Ukrainian grain and other products, posing a threat to the Ukrainian economy and global food security.
The Russian fleet on the decline in the Black Sea
Despite the damage caused by the Ukrainian attacks, the Russian Black Sea Fleet remains powerful and still capable of launching long-range cruise missiles at Ukraine. Russian air bases in Crimea also remain operational, hosting active warplanes to support ground operations in the region.
But the regular series of successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian warships and other military assets in the region has put the Russian fleet on the defensive, limiting its offensive capability.
Although the Russian Defense Ministry has largely remained silent on Ukrainian drone and missile attacks on its naval assets, Russian bloggers and military commentators have harshly criticized the General Staff for the slow pace and lack of rigor of his reaction to the threat.
The strikes forced the Russian navy to take precautions that affected its operations, including moving some of its ships from Crimean ports further east to Novorossiysk to better protect them.
In a sign of some excitement, Russian military bloggers reported that the head of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, was removed from his post last month following the latest warship losses, without this having been officially confirmed. This senior officer is being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement in the campaign of Russian strikes against civilian infrastructure, notably power plants during the winter of 2022/2023.
