A dramatic video has shown Ukraine stepping up its use of kamikaze boats to attack Vladimir Putin’s warship in the Black Sea.
Russia says the warship Priazovye came under fire from six unmanned ships.
Images show the destruction of one of the kamikaze boats, but also the vulnerability of Putin’s naval ships.
Russia claims that, as in previous attacks, a US RQ-4B Global Hawk drone conducted reconnaissance in the Black Sea.
The Priazovye was in roughly the same area as the spy ship Ivan Khurs when it was attacked by surface drones last month.
A dramatic video has shown Ukraine stepping up its use of kamikaze boats to attack Vladimir Putin’s warship in the Black Sea
Russia says the warship Priazovye came under fire from six unmanned ships. In the photo: a Russian soldier is said to shoot at the drone in the distance
Footage released by the Russian Ministry of Defense (pictured) shows a large explosion in the water. Russia said it destroyed the attacking drones before they hit Priazovie
Russia said both the Priazovye and Ivan Khurs were monitoring the safety of submarine gas pipelines – speculating that Ukraine might want to attack these supply routes.
Military expert Vasily Dandykin said: “This is the second case.
“The ship was in the same area as Ivan Khurs.”
The drone strikes came in two waves of three, war expert Andrew Medvedev said.
The attempt to sabotage the scout ship Priazovye was, according to Russian reports, repulsed with machine guns on the deck.
Ukraine is believed to have nearly sunk the Ivan Chars in the attack last month, with video filmed by an onboard drone camera appearing to show the unmanned vehicle hitting the warship’s hull.
Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko said the unmanned marine drone exploded close to the reconnaissance warship.
He said it “exploded right on the side of the ship and severely damaged it.”
Gerashchenko said the Ivan Khurs was “definitely damaged and maybe even on its side,” which would be a huge blow to Vladimir Putin’s campaign.
Russian sources said the ship was undamaged, but provided no evidence.
If correct, Ukraine’s claims would contradict Moscow’s that three drones were destroyed before reaching the ship.
The footage appears to show a drone dodging oncoming fire while flying low over the water
It houses the military ship, which Ukraine claims is the Ivan Khurs – one of Vladimir Putin’s most modern espionage warships
The drone approaches and dodges what appears to be flashes of gunfire trying to take it out
As the drone approaches the warship, the image fades and drops out – making it difficult to know if it made a successful attack on the ship
The incredible footage released last month showed the drone speeding across the water towards the ship, before appearing to crash into the hull as the footage fades and then cuts out – presumably because the drone exploded.
On May 24, Russia said Ukraine’s armed forces had launched an “unsuccessful” attack on the warship.
They said Ukraine had attacked at 5:30 am with three unmanned speedboats. Earlier footage showed the moment a drone was shot down and exploded in a ball of fire.
The Russian Defense Ministry previously reported that all three Ukrainian boats that attacked the Khurs had been destroyed.
Russian sources said at the time that the spy ship, part of the Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, remains afloat, but there has been no independent confirmation of this.
And in an incredible confession, they also said the drone may have hit the ship, but it didn’t explode. Moscow previously said that: “All three naval drones were destroyed from regular weapons of the Russian ship.”
The reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs was in international waters in the Black Sea
Footage released on May 24 showed a kamikaze drone being blown out of the water as it zigzagged towards the Khurs.
The first salvos from the Russian warship missed the orbiting drone, but then it took a direct hit and exploded in a ball of fire.
The second footage seemed to show either a direct hit or the drone being destroyed very close to the Khurs.
The incident indicates that Putin’s navy is no longer master of the Black Sea.
The spy ship, launched in 2017, was reportedly in international waters some 40 nautical miles north of the Bosphorus.
“There is reason to believe that the drones were launched from a commercial civilian craft,” a Russian broadcaster said.
A Telegram channel later claimed that the ship was attacked from a grain carrier, but this was disputed by Russian sources.
The route of the intelligence ship of the Yuriy Ivanov class (Project 18280) was not immediately clear.
In April 2022, Ukraine sank the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet with missile strikes in one of Putin’s biggest humiliations of the 15-month war.