Russian forces have encountered a new enemy in the Black Sea: Ukraine’s arsenal of naval kamikaze drones. The latest of Ukraine’s maritime conquests was the Russian Mangust-class patrol boat, which it destroyed off the coast of occupied Crimea with a MAGURA naval drone. Ukraine shifted its focus to naval drones after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have struck a significant blow to the Russian Black Sea Fleet by hitting the large Russian landing ship Tsezar Kunikov with sea drones, Ukrainian military sources reported. The operation, which occurred near Alupka in Ukrainian territorial waters, resulted in "critical holes in its port side," leading to the sinking of the…
Russia’s war against Ukraine is shattering the conventions of warfare in many ways. One of the most illustrative examples is the systematic destruction of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) by Ukraine, a country that has virtually no navy of its own. The Ukrainian military’s use of coastal missile systems, air-launched cruise missiles, and sea and air drones has forced Russia to up its Black Sea port defenses and create a naval base in Russian-occupied Abkhazia.