Ukraine Kamikaze Drones Destroy Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Warship

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Ukraine has allegedly destroyed the Russian warship “Sergei Kotov” in the Black Sea using kamikaze drones. This comes less than two years since Russia’s Black Sea fleet flagship “the Moskova” also sank.

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate announced the sinking on social media this week- “+1 Russian ship was upgraded to a submarine. Tonight, the special unit of the @DI_Ukraine “Group 13” attacked the patrol ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Sergei Kotov, worth $65 million.” The post added, “As a result of the attack by Magura V5 naval drones, the Russian ship of project 22160, ‘Sergei Kotov,’ suffered damage to the stern, right, and left sides. Nice start [to] the day! Great job, warriors.”

According to Interesting Engineering, the Magura V5 is a versatile unmanned surface boat that was designed for various tasks, including surveillance, reconnaissance, patrolling, search and rescue, mine countermeasures, maritime security, and combat missions.

The Sergei Kotov was sunk by Ukraine’s special forces group called “Group 13,” after sustaining much damage that caused significant fires to break out onboard. Ukrainian sources claim the vessel participated in the attack on Snake Island on the initial attack of Ukraine’s invasion in February 2022, along with the now-sunken Moskva.

The ships are 98 meters long, have a beam of 14 meters, and a range of around 9,656 km. They are crewed by around 80 men, and have a displacement of up to 1,700 tons. They are also relatively lightly armed when compared to other ships in the Russian navy- weaponry includes 76.2 mm guns, surface-to-air missiles, grenade launchers, and machine guns.

The Russian government has not issued an official response to the sinking of the Sergei Kotov, but this incident is expected to escalate tensions between the two countries and potentially lead to further military confrontations.