Drone camera footage of the attack on the Russian missile corvette Ivanovets

Ukraine is a nation without a navy and yet has succeeded in wreaking havoc on the Russian Black Sea Fleet using high-tech sea drones and anti-ship missiles. The Ukrainians have continued to sink Russian warships, as recently as last week, resulting in the dismissal of the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy.  

As we noted in a post last August, when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, at least 100 Ukrainian Navy vessels, representing 75% of the Ukrainian naval fleet, were captured by Russian forces. In the Russian invasion of 2022, much of the remaining fleet was destroyed or scuttled to prevent capture.

Lacking ships, the Ukranians have developed drones, including high-tech sea drones, to counter the Russian Black Sea Fleet, with remarkable success.  Fighting back against the Russian fleet has limited the Russian’s ability to launch cruise missiles from the Black Sea against Ukrainian civilian and military targets. Challenging Russia’s naval superiority also has helped create more favorable conditions for Ukrainian grain exports and other shipments from the country’s Black Sea ports. 

Last week, a swarm of Ukrainian sea drones reportedly sank the Russian patrol ship Sergei Kotov. In February, swarms of Ukrainian sea drones also sank the Russian landing ship Caesar Kunikov and the missile corvette Ivanovets.

The use of swarms of remote-controlled drone boats laden with explosives has allowed Ukraine to tip the scales of naval warfare in its favor despite Russia’s massive superiority in firepower. The Magura drones, used in the recent attacks, are equipped with advanced GPS and cameras, and have a low radar signature that makes them hard to detect. Group-13, a secretive unit of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, has been behind the drone attacks.

The Magura, named after a Slavic goddess of war, looks like a small motorboat with a flat surface instead of passenger seats. Its latest version, the Magura V5, is 5.5 meters (18 feet) long, weighs up to 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) and has a range of up to 800 kilometers (500 miles), 60 hours of battery life, and a 200-kilogram (440-pound) payload, according to Ukrainian authorities. It also beams live video to operators.

Russian warships and their crews have not been the only casualties of the Ukrainian drone offensive. Adm. Nikolai Evmenov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, has recently been dismissed, replaced by the commander of the Northern Fleet, Adm. Aleksandr Moiseev.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.