A sea drone about 18 feet long, carrying a 705-pound payload, helped drive part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet out of its home port. That is the short version of how Ukraine, a country with no traditional navy, took on one of the region’s biggest fleets.
Business Insider reported in July 2024 that Kyiv relied on three tools. The Magura V5 drone reaches about 48 mph and has a range of roughly 450 nautical miles; it has reportedly been used against the corvette Ivanovets and the landing craft Caesar Kunikov. The R-360 Neptune, a subsonic cruise missile with a 200-mile range, was used in the sinking of the flagship Moskva. The Sea Baby drone, nearly 20 feet long, runs at about 56 mph. A Ukrainian security official said “a year ago our drone could carry about 800 kg of explosives to a distance of about 800 km, and today it is over 1,000 kg and over 1,000 km.” Sea Baby drones also struck the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia in 2023.
A fleet pushed back
By March 2024 the UK Ministry of Defence was describing the Russian fleet as “functionally inactive,” with ships forced to retreat from Crimea. Analysts at UkraineWorld later put numbers on the damage: between February 2022 and April 2026, Ukrainian units made at least 62 successful strikes on Russian warships and destroyed roughly 40% of the fleet’s major naval inventory. Major surface combatants were evacuated from occupied Sevastopol to Novorossiysk.
Strike drones are cheap by naval standards, averaging approximately $250,000 per unit. Newer versions of the Sea Baby carry RPV-16 thermobaric rocket launchers or guided anti-tank missiles.
Novorossiysk has not been safe either. On August 12, Ukraine used 15 different types of its own weapons, including the Long Neptune missile, jet-powered drones and unmanned surface vessels, in one operation against the base.
The grain corridor
Russia withdrew from the Black Sea grain deal on July 17, 2023, citing unmet conditions on banking restrictions and fertilizer exports. Turkey and the UN had brokered the agreement in July 2022, and it had allowed Ukrainian grain to leave by sea.
On August 10, 2023, Ukraine’s Navy announced temporary routes for civilian ships to and from Chornomorsk, Odesa and Pivdennyi. Anadolu Agency reported the navy’s warning that Russia posed a military threat and a danger of sea mines along every route. Only vessels whose owners or captains confirmed they were ready to sail could use them.
Russia then turned on the ports themselves, UkraineWorld said, hitting grain elevators and transshipment hubs in the Odesa and Danube regions with ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones. Strikes on civilian bulk carriers pushed insurance rates to critical levels. Air raids on port facilities still prevent exports from returning to pre-war volumes.
A Kiel University researcher told Business Insider that Russia keeps advantages through port control and missile strikes. “Ukraine won’t win the war in the maritime domain only,” he said, “but it could surely lose it there.”
Sources
- How has Ukraine reshaped understanding of naval strategy in the Black Sea
- Ukraine announces temporary corridors for merchant vessels in Black Sea
- With no traditional navy of its own, Ukraine has damaged Russia's Black Sea Fleet (Business Insider via Yahoo News UK)
