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 Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) has obtained evidence that the Russians are using kamikaze drones over the nuclear reactors of the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP). Source: DIU The video from a Russian FPV drone, obtained through radioelectronic reconnaissance devices, contains the marking UT4D.
Soldiers from one of Ukraine’s 117th Territorial Defense Brigade mobile air defense squads call themselves fowlers. The unit’s task is fending off Shahed kamikaze drones when Russia deploys these deadly birds to strike targets across the country, as well as watching the sky Ukraine shares with Russia over the border. When Shaheds breach Ukraine’s airspace in the north and head towards Sumy or Kyiv, the unit is the first to confront them.
Russia launched “several waves of Shahed-131/136 kamikaze drones from the south” targeting Ukraine's energy facilities, reported Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces on Telegram on April 12.