New details of drone attacks on Russian ships in occupied Sevastopol: Serhiy Zgurets column

Drone attack in Sevastopol bay

We all know about the technological story of kamikaze drone attack on Russian warships in Sevastopol bay on October 29. At that time, several Russian warships were damaged by sea drones and aerial drones. According to estimates from various sources, it was the flagship of the fleet, Admiral Makarov frigate, which is the carrier of eight Kalibr cruise missiles, and Black Sea Fleet's trawler Ivan Golubets and possibly amphibious ships were also damaged.

The Ukrainian side did not take responsibility for this highly well-planned and brilliantly executed operation. Russian officials also did not admit any damage to the frigate, just as the Russian Ministry of Defense did not acknowledge that Ukrainian Neptune missiles sank the Russian cruiser Moskva. However, they accused Ukraine and Great Britain of conducting operations with drones.

Putin said something with given offense about attack drones 10 meters long and weighing 500 kg or 500 tons, and even demanded security guarantees for Black Sea Fleet against attacks from Ukraine, as a condition for restoring the grain agreement. A strange wish - own safety for ships that bombard Ukrainian land. But what happened to Russian ships? Finally, satellite images for November 1 have become publicly available. They indicate that at least one frigate was damaged during a kamikaze drone attack in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol.

The picture shows it being pulled by two tugboats from the bow and stern of the ship. Usually, ships in the water area of Sevastopol bay move at their own pace, and this suggests that as a result of the drone attack, the frigate Admiral Makarov at least lost its course.

Attack was quite successful and we can talk about more significant damage to this frigate.  How serious the damage is and how long it will take to restore this ship, let's wait for the next satellite images. But there is another interesting detail, that usually Russian group with "Kalibres", which threaten Ukraine, counts up to six ships, and today only one carrier of these sea-based cruise missiles is on combat duty, and it is the frigate Admiral Essen. It seems that it is necessary to repeat the operation with an attack of naval drones.

Serhiy Zgurets, Ukrainian journalist, military expert