On Tuesday, Ukrainian military intelligence revealed through the Telegram messaging app that Ukrainian maritime drones damaged a Russian Black Sea fleet patrol vessel called Sergey Kotov, near the Kerch Strait off Crimea, which is currently under Russian occupation. The team responsible, Group 13, used Magura V5 drones, causing significant damage to the vessel’s stern, starboard and port sides, the intelligence agency noted. They stated further that the damaged ship cost around $65 million (€59 million).
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, spoke out on Telegram on the same day, saying that the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which operates in Ukrainian waters, symbolises occupation.
The attack led to a temporary halt in train traffic on the bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia, as informed by a Russian official in Crimea via Telegram. Highway traffic was similarly suspended for several hours before resuming, as noted by the Telegram channel of the administrative authority Russia has installed to manage the bridge.
Verification of these reports by Reuters was not possible.
In a related incident last month, the Ukrainian military stated they had sunk a Russian warship near Crimea using naval drones which breached the vessel’s port side, an incident Russia failed to confirm.
The Ukrainian military revealed that Russian forces had launched 22 drones at Ukraine, 18 of which were destroyed by Ukrainian air defence systems above the Odesa region. Despite struggling against the better-equipped Russian army along the approximately 1,500-kilometre front line, Ukrainian forces are effectively targeting sites beyond the battlefield.
Previous claims by Ukraine include the sinking of two Russian warships using drones last month; the Ivanovets, a Russian missile-armed corvette, on February 1st and the Caesar Kunikov landing ship on February 14th.
According to officials in Kyiv, about 20 per cent of Russian missile attacks originate from the Black Sea. The successful attacks by Ukraine on Russian vessels in this area is a source of embarrassment for Moscow. Almost one year ago, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the Moskva guided-missile cruiser, went down after suffering significant damage in a missile attack.
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