On 29 October 2022, Sevastopol’s Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvojaev, described a night assault on the bay as “the most massive attack by drones and remotely piloted surface vehicles on the waters of the Bay of Sevastopol in the history of the conflict.” Euronews reported that he had first claimed every drone was destroyed and nothing damaged, then reversed course. The port was shut to shipping for a time.
That raid was an early public sign of what Ukraine’s sea drone program would become.
From modified boats to a purpose-built weapon
The Kyiv Post traced the work to Group 13, the unmanned systems department of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, HUR. Its head, who goes by “Borets,” said the team started on seaborne drones in the summer of 2022. The first machines were modified watercraft. Later the group partnered with the Ukrainian firm SpecialTechnoExport, and the result was the Magura V5.
The Kyiv Post gave the dimensions as 5.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. It tops out at 42 knots and cruises at 22 knots, with a payload of 320 kilograms and a range of 450 nautical miles. Recovered units showed a carbon fabric build, two Starlink antennas and a Linux-based control computer.
Swarms and results
Single-drone attacks gave way to groups of five or six, each with its own job: disable the engines, hit the vulnerable midsection, then exploit the breach.
The Kyiv Post listed the record. The reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs was damaged in May 2023. The landing craft Serna and Akula were sunk in November 2023. In February 2024 came the guided-missile corvette Ivanovets and the heavy assault ship Tsesar Kunikov. Citing Oryx OSINT tracking, it said sea drones have helped destroy 22 confirmed Russian naval vessels since the full-scale invasion began.
Ukrainian military intelligence officer Vadym Skibitskyi told Naval Technology that “recent successes in damaging and driving away Russian naval assets have been primarily attributed to the deployment of their indigenous maritime drones.” Ukraine says the Magura V5 pushed parts of the Russian Black Sea fleet away from Crimea. Naval Technology noted that Storm Shadow strikes on the Sevastopol shipyard also prompted Russia to move some ships to Novorossiysk, and that Moscow then shifted toward patrolling the sea with jets.
Skibitskyi credited the drone’s “precision, power, and evolving accuracy” with keeping Russia cautious and on the back foot.
Sources
- Ukraine war: 'Massive' Crimea drone attack
- Analysis: The Magura-V5 Sea Drone
- Ukraine Magura V5 USVs force Russian Black Sea fleet retreat
