In three days, Ukrainian drones shot down four Russian patrol boats

On the same night, the Ukrainian Air Force bombed the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s anchorage in Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea, destroying a landing ship and a Ukrainian Navy submarine. also It began to pursue patrol ships of the Russian fleet.

In three action-packed days beginning on September 13, Ukrainian Navy unmanned surface ships reportedly attacked at least three — and possibly four — of the Black Sea Fleet’s smaller fighters.

The attack on the fleet’s patrol ships began on September 14, when a small flotilla of American naval craft loaded with explosives rammed the Project 22160-class ship. Bykov In the southwest of the Black Sea.

Automated ambush on Bykov It was probably simultaneous with the missile strike that destroyed the landing ship and submarine at the Sevastopol dry dock. It seems Bykov It was just west of Sevastopol when the cruise missiles were fired at it.

The Russian government claims Bykov All three attacking USVs were destroyed. The Ukrainian government claimed that the patrol boat was damaged in the attack. Kyiv Video released From filming the attack Bykov Shooting USVs from just yards away.

Meanwhile, USV aircraft hit the missile cruiser Samom—the 215-foot-long Project 1239 ship—was docked in the port of Sevastopol and sustained “severe damage,” according to Ukrainian sources. Tell Reuters.

A day later, on September 15, it happened again: at least one Ukrainian warship collided with a Project 22800 patrol boat. Askold-22 feet tall and armed with a missile. Kremlin: “The enemy unmanned boat was destroyed by fire from the ship’s standard weapons.” Tell State propaganda organization TASS.

And if the Ukrainian government is to be believed, there was another attack on a second Black Sea Fleet ship of Project 22160, resulting in US ships landing strikes on at least four Russian patrol vessels over the course of three days.

It is likely that all four patrol ships survived the recent attacks. He. She also It is possible that all four were damaged. In any case, the Ukrainian drone operation highlights the new reality for the beleaguered Black Sea Fleet.

In weeks of coordinated attacks before and after the September 13 raid on Sevastopol, Ukrainian forces destroyed two of Russia’s five S-400 air defense batteries in Crimea and recaptured two oil platforms that the Russians were using as sensor sites in the west. Black Sea.

The Black Sea Fleet is exposed. Its ships are not safe Anywhere.

In 19 months of fierce fighting with an enemy that did not have large warships, the Black Sea Fleet lost at least One cruiser, three amphibious ships, a submarine, a supply ship, and several patrol boats and landing craft.

Losses are sure to continue as the Ukrainians seek to consolidate their new naval superiority. The Black Sea Fleet includes only 30 patrol ships. If Ukraine can hit four of them in just three days, imagine what it might do in the next 100 or 200 days.