Machine guns and combat aircraft aren't enough to stop Ukraine's drone boats from killing Russian warships, general says

• Ukraine's fleet of naval drones has been used to damage and destroy Russian warships.
• Moscow has made some efforts to defend against this threat, like putting machine gun crews on ships.

Ukraine's formidable fleet of exploding naval drones have punished the Russian Black Sea Fleet since these weapons were first introduced, leaving a trail of damaged and destroyed warships in its wake.

While Moscow has made efforts to try and curb this threat, a general in the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, said that Kyiv is still finding success with its attacks, which have ultimately led to the reopening of a maritime corridor in the Black Sea and the relocation of some Russian forces in the region.

"The adversary immediately began to respond to the threat of naval drones, but we are still a few steps ahead," Brig. Gen. Ivan Lukashevych, whose SBU team has carried out a handful of the boat operations, said in translated remarks to Business Insider.

Ukraine unveiled its naval drones in 2022 as a useful alternative to a proper navy, which it doesn't have. Kyiv has since sought to develop what it calls "the world's first fleet of naval drones" — an effort centered around an uncrewed surface vessel, or USV, called Sea Baby — and recently launched a fundraising initiative to purchase dozens of these systems for the SBU.

Ukraine's Sea Baby drones have been used in devastating attacks, targeting Russian warships and infrastructure — including a key bridge — around the Black Sea.

Moscow has defended against these drone attacks and even taken them out in some cases, but ultimately, it has been unable to stop them from inflicting serious damage.

The Russians' "first move was to deploy machine gun crews on their warships to shoot down drones and reinforce their air-defense capabilities," Lukashevych said. "Their planes and combat helicopters are constantly patrolling the coastline and waters of the western Black Sea."

The general said that a joint team made up of the SBU and Ukrainian naval forces "were quick to come up with ways to equip a Sea Baby in order to break through the defenses of Russian ships or other targets."

He added that "the drone's self-detonation mode is very restricted and does not cover the full range of threats."

To make these drones more of a headache for Russia, Ukraine has built them to be "stronger, more efficient, and deadlier" compared to the earlier models, Lukashevych said.

This process has meant increasing their warhead size, making them more durable in the water, and ensuring they can travel much greater distances, such as from positions in southern Ukraine to the occupied Crimean peninsula across the Black Sea — and back.

"The Russians are very well aware of what our drones are capable of," Lukashevych said. "They have already tested the distance we can operate at, the speed at which we can strike, and the payload we can carry. So they are eager to learn some new details."

Staying one step ahead of the Russians also means that the SBU is testing and manufacturing its drones in multiple locations and constantly relocating. Special operations are even carried out from different command posts in different areas.

"We have modified our maritime drones into multi-purpose systems," Lukashevych said, explaining this allows the SBU "to cope quite successfully with the Russian fleet in order to keep it away from Ukrainian shores."

Ukraine said in early February that it had damaged or destroyed more than 24 Russian warships — amounting to a third of the Black Sea Fleet — since the full-scale invasion began more than two years ago.

Naval drone attacks have also driven some of the Russian fleet away from its headquarters in Sevastopol, a port city in the southwestern corner of the Crimean peninsula, across the Black Sea to Novorossiysk in Russia.

Western intelligence has cautioned though that the fleet is not out of the fight and can still perform its main duties.

Ukrainian officials are, however, still celebrated pushing Russian forces across the Black Sea because it has allowed Kyiv to re-establish a critical maritime corridor in the region after living under a crushing blockade.

"We managed to unblock the grain corridor and suppress the activity of Russian missile launchers firing from the sea at the territory of Ukraine," Lukashevych said.

The general added that "forcing the enemy to flee from the Black Sea was the goal we sought and it was achieved."