A ship’s crew can deal with one incoming drone. The trouble starts when a second and a third turn up minutes later. That, in plain terms, is how Ukraine managed to hit 21 Russian ships within a single 72-hour window, according to a Seatrade Maritime report cited by Narwhal TV.
Analysts quoted there call it the most concentrated naval assault campaign since the war began. Moscow has not officially confirmed the losses. Russian state media acknowledged “incidents” involving vessels but gave no specifics on how many were hit.
Drones first, missiles to follow
Most of the strikes used Magura V5 and similar sea drones, uncrewed boats packed with explosives that ride the waterline and are hard to intercept in volume. Ukraine has pushed their range out and improved their guidance over the course of the war. Neptune anti-ship missiles backed them up, and running both at once overwhelmed Russian defenses.
Several of the targets were not frontline warships. They were logistical and support vessels, the kind Russia relies on to resupply Crimea and keep up amphibious capability. Losing those ships does damage that outlasts the ships themselves, the analysts say.
A fleet that has shrunk
At the war’s start, the Black Sea Fleet was seen as the dominant regional force, with roughly 40 combat-capable surface ships. Sea drones, missiles and special operations have since damaged or destroyed an estimated one-third of them. After the cruiser Moskva sank in April 2022, much of the fleet moved westward, away from Ukraine’s coast.
The Kerch Bridge, already badly damaged, can no longer serve as a reliable supply line at full capacity. That leaves the sea lanes as Russia’s main route to the peninsula. The report frames the choice facing Moscow this way: pull the remaining ships out of drone range and give up the sea, or leave them forward and absorb continued losses.
Ukraine’s own sea drones cost a fraction of what they destroy. The report also says Kyiv’s setup of a humanitarian shipping corridor in late 2023, after Russia left the UN-brokered grain deal, has held up largely because Russian naval interference has grown expensive.
Novorossiysk, two months on
Kyiv kept up the pressure. On September 9, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had hit Russia’s naval base and oil shipping facilities at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk over the previous 24 hours. “A naval base was hit: a terminal involved in oil shipment, military harbor facilities, warships, and Kalibr carriers,” he said.
Zelenskyy thanked the SBU, SBS, Navy, HUR and DPSU for what he called their accuracy. “We are responding to Russia’s daily terrorist strikes,” he said.
Before the official statement, geolocated footage analyzed by Militarnyi and NASA FIRMS satellite imagery showed damage at the Novorossiysk Fuel Oil Terminal, with at least one petroleum storage tank on fire. The terminal can handle 4 million metric tons a year. Mayor Andrei Kravchenko first blamed “falling debris” from overnight air defense activity.
Sources
- Ukrainian Drones Hit Russian Warships and Kalibr Carriers at Black Sea Port
- Ukraine Hits 21 Russian Ships in 72 Hours
