- Ukraine used an exploding naval drone to destroy a Russian military speedboat in Crimea on Monday.
- Footage shows the drone navigating through heavy aerial fire to strike the Russian boat.
Ukraine's exploding drone boats appear to be hunting down smaller, high-speed vessels in the Black Sea after Russia pulled back its larger warships following a spate of devastating attacks.
The Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence, or HUR, said on Monday that its forces destroyed a Russian military speedboat with a Magura V5 naval drone in Uzka Bay, located in the northwestern corner of the occupied Crimean peninsula.
The attack marks Ukraine's latest strike against the Russian Black Sea Fleet. This months-long drone and missile campaign has forced Moscow to relocate many of its vulnerable assets away from the fleet's headquarters in Crimea and closer to Russia, on the other side of the sea.
"Since the fear of Ukrainian attacks forces the occupiers to hide large ships of the Black Sea Fleet away from the peninsula, combat work continues against the high-speed maneuverable military vessels of the Russians," the HUR, an arm of Ukraine's defense ministry, wrote in a statement on the Telegram messaging platform, per translation.
Footage of the attack shared by Ukraine shows one of the naval drones take heavy fire from above, most likely from an aircraft. The drone manages to evade the fire, which lands in the surrounding water, and makes its way toward the Russian boat sitting at a pier.
The Russian boat appears to be covered by a camouflage tarp. It's unclear if it was manned by any troops at the time of the attack. The video cuts just as the Ukrainian drone slams into the vessel. Kyiv did not say whether it lost any drones in the attack.
Another successful mission by @DI_Ukraine.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 6, 2024
A Magura V5 sea drone destroyed a russian speedboat in temporarily occupied Crimea. pic.twitter.com/BBXbPq2lpj
Russia's defense ministry claimed on Monday that the Black Sea Fleet had destroyed five of the Ukrainian drone boats near Crimea's northwestern coast. Moscow published footage to Telegram showing a helicopter open fire on the surface of the water, and at one point, an explosion can be seen. It did not acknowledge any of its own losses.
Business Insider was unable to immediately verify the footage from the two militaries.
The HUR identified the Russian vessel as a "Mongoose," a $3 million multi-purpose ship first produced in 2000 that is capable of engaging in combat operations, patrolling, and carrying out search and rescue operations. These boats can be up to 65 feet long and are equipped with machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, and portable air-defense systems.
Ukrainian forces have heavily relied on their arsenals of Magura V5s and Sea Babies — another type of exploding naval drone — to damage and destroy scores Russian warships in the Black Sea. Many of those targets were larger vessels, unlike the one that was struck on Monday.
Russia has been unable to consistently defend against this asymmetrical style of warfare, despite recent reshuffling in its naval leadership and new efforts to curb the threat. These efforts include added protections in port and outfitting its crews with more machine guns, as well as additional combat air patrols.
A general in the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, previously told Business Insider that Moscow constantly has planes and combat helicopters patrolling around the western Black Sea, which would be consistent with the video shared earlier by the Russian defense ministry. Still, Kyiv has managed to find success in targeting Russian vessels with its drones.