Ukrainian Sea Drone Attack Claimed To Sink Russian Missile Corvette
An overnight attack by sea drones in the Black Sea has apparently sunk the Russian Tarantul-class corvette Ivanovets.
Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence has claimed credit for the sinking, with the military intelligence service saying that the sea drones used were operated by its Group 13 special unit. The service released a video of the attack as viewed through the drones’ thermal vision systems, with the corvette shown listing and eventually sinking following multiple impacts, with one of the drones apparently detonating inside a hole in the hull left by a previous drone explosion.
According to the Main Directorate of Intelligence, the attack and sinking took place off of Donuzlav Lake on the occupied Crimean peninsula. In a post on the Telegram messaging service, the service claimed that Russian search and rescue efforts for the crew of the Ivanovets were “not successful” based on “preliminary information”. While it is not known how many crew members were aboard, publicly available information states that Tarantul-class corvettes have a crew of 40.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence has previously used sea drones to attack two docked landing craft at a Russian Black Sea Fleet base near Chernomorske on Crimea, but the attack on the Ivanovets is the first attack on a Russian ship at sea that appears to have met with significant success, with a May 2023 attack on the Ivan Khurs intelligence ship seemingly failing to damage the ship.
Other sea drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Navy have been used in attacks on Black Sea Fleet ships, Black Sea Fleet bases on Crimea, as well as the Kerch Bridge. The attacks have limited the Black Sea Fleet’s ability to operate freely in the Black Sea, despite the Ukrainian Navy lacking the ships to conventionally engage the Black Sea Fleet.
Ukrainian use of sea drones has been part of Kyiv’s campaign of strikes on Russian military facilities on the Crimean peninsula, with the Ukrainian military also employing suicide attack drones and aircraft-launched cruise missiles in attacks on Russian bases on the peninsula. The most recent attack happened on January 31, with Ukraine’s air force claiming to have conducted a missile strike on the Belbek airfield in southwestern Crimea.