Ukraine's sea drones can damage Russian warships even if they don't directly hit them, Ukrainian spy chief says

• Ukraine reported an attack by drones on two warships in the southwestern part of the Black Sea.
• It claims to have struck and damaged two of Russia's Project 22160 ships in the attack.

Ukraine's naval drones are capable of inflicting extensive damage on Russian warships even if they don't directly hit them, the country's intelligence chief said.

Speaking to Radio Svoboda late last month, Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said that Ukraine had used a sea drone to target Russia's Admiral Essen frigate in Sevastopol Bay.

He told the outlet that the drone was destroyed as it approached the warship, but that it was still able to cause enough damage to the vessel to put it into dock for repairs for months.

"It seemed unsuccessful," he said of the attack. "But the blast wave, because it was destroyed about 100 meters from the ship, and the charge was quite powerful, the wreckage completely damaged some of the ship's electronic equipment, antennas, certain systems, and the hydroacoustic system."

Ukraine claimed on Thursday that it had also used sea drones to carry out a successful attack on two Russian warships in the southwestern part of the Black Sea.

Ukraine's Strategic Communications Directorate wrote in a Telegram post that it had struck and damaged two of Russia's Project 22160 ships in the attack, which video footage appeared to show was carried out by sea drones.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has four Project 22160 ships — the Vasily Bykov, the Dmitry Rogachev, the Pavel Derzhavin, and the Sergey Kotov, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

Project 22160 ships can take up to 80 people on board and are equipped with a 57mm А-220М naval artillery weapon, which is designed to attack air, surface, and coastal targets, per Naval Technology.

They also feature two 14.5 mm heavy machine guns, two DP-65 grenade launchers, and a Gibka air-defense missile turret mount, per the site.

Ukraine has frequently utilized sea drones in its fight against Putin's forces.

The country recently used an experimental sea drone to target a Russian missile ship off the coast of occupied Crimea, Ukrainian sources claimed.

The Security Service of Ukraine said that a Sea Baby drone, which can operate in poor weather conditions and are difficult to detect behind high waves, was used to carry out the attack.