On Monday night, Ukrainian special forces allegedly used Magura V5 naval drones to assault the Sergei Kotov maritime ship.
The latest setback for Russia’s navy in the conflict occurred when Ukrainian forces allegedly used modern naval drones to attack.
There is a video of what seemed like an explosion on board. The Ukrainian intelligence agency also released what it claimed were audio recordings of Russian officers discussing the ship’s destruction. On X, the Ukrainian defense ministry shared the footage of the attack, using the Ukrainian-designed and -built Magura V5 unmanned watercraft loaded with explosives. The Russian military intelligence service reported seven casualties, six injuries, and 52 rescued crew members.
According to Ukrainian intelligence experts, the cost of the sunken ship is about 65 million dollars.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet commented on the attack.
Ukraine has successfully driven the Russian navy out of the western parts of the Black Sea after inflicting heavy losses upon them. Twenty medium-to-large Russian ships have been destroyed in the Black Sea battle, according to an assessment made by the United States last month.
Considering that Kyiv’s 2023 counteroffensive was largely unsuccessful and that the country is still fighting for new military help from the United States Congress, Ukraine’s recent successes in the Black Sea have been a ray of hope.
In response to drone assaults, Russia has sent patrol ships like the Sergey Kotov, as stated in a report published last month by the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank based in the United States. A helicopter and radar help the ships find drones, which they then neutralize with heavy machine guns and grenade launchers, according to the report.
Two Russian warships were allegedly sunk by Ukrainian drones last month. Russian officials did not confirm those assertions.
On Tuesday, the Russian military scrambled a Su-27 fighter jet to accompany two Rafale fighter jets and a French E-3F military observation plane in international airspace over the Black Sea.
