Ukrainian 'kamikaze' naval drones paralyze Russian fleet in Crimea - Defense Intelligence Chief

Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate, said this in an interview with Radio Liberty.

"These are not offensive weapons. Of course, it is impossible to attack with them. But to paralyze the fleet's activities, which, in the end, has happened in principle, has already been achieved. The ships do not go further than the Sevastopol raid in the northern direction," Budanov said.

It is reported that Ukraine has already mastered such mass production of marine drones: "This is not like making one or two in garages. This is not the case. Normal mass production is underway."

Russia cannot handle all the drones, so this makes them an effective weapon against the aggressor.

"Let's put it this way: it's a lot. It's really a lot. How effective is all this? Since there are real casualties and the price of such a drone and the price of a warship are not comparable, we can say that this is a fairly effective way. But, of course, they destroy 60%, maybe even 70%. This is true. There is nothing to hide here, as they say. However, the problem for them is the 30%," said the intelligence head. 

According to the intelligence officer, there are cases when a drone is destroyed alongside a Russian ship, and then it goes for so-called long-term repairs.

"For example, there was a story when sea scooters entered the waters of Sevastopol Bay. There was a well-known case. It was destroyed. It was destroyed on the approach to the frigate Admiral Essen, right on the approach. If you look at this situation at first, it seems unfortunate. But the blast wave, because it was destroyed about 100 meters from the ship, and the charge was quite powerful, and the wreckage completely damaged the ship's electronic equipment, some electronics, antennas, certain systems, and the hydroacoustic system. And it took 3.5 months to repair. It stayed in the dock for 3.5 months," Budanov recalls.

The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate says that Ukraine is not afraid of Russian attempts to sink its ships in Crimea to protect the Crimean bridge: "Let them sink. Listen, this is a favorite habit of the Russians. Do you remember the famous monument in Sevastopol? A monument to sunken ships. Well, time goes by and nothing changes. But I want to remind you that when they sunk the fleet, it didn't help them much. Look at history. They did the same thing, by the way, when they were seizing Crimea. I don't remember if there was an old big anti-submarine ship or a watchman at the entrance to Donuzlav Bay when Olefirenko couldn't get out. They did the same thing. I think it's more of a habit of theirs to sink something somewhere and it will help somehow."

Explosions near the Crimean Bridge

On the afternoon of Saturday, August 12, 2023, Sergey Aksyonov, the head of the Russian administration in occupied Crimea, reported that the Defense Forces of Ukraine attempted missile strikes on the Crimean Bridge. Aksyonov claimed that Russian air defense had shot down two Ukrainian missiles in the Kerch Strait region.

Aksyonov stated that the Crimean Bridge was supposedly undamaged, and there was no information about any casualties.

However, Russia's Ministry of Defense contradicted this, asserting that only one missile was involved. The Russian Ministry of Defense explained that it was a modified "S-200 anti-aircraft guided missile" turned into a strike weapon.

Prior to this, images emerged on local social media showing four instances of smoke, both on the bridge itself and its surroundings. These pictures depicted two clusters of black smoke and two clusters of white smoke.

Oleg Kryuchkov, an "adviser" to Aksyonov on information policy, attributed the white smoke to a smokescreen created by special services.

Starting from 12:36 p.m., the occupants halted traffic on the Crimean Bridge. Russian coast guard boats were dispatched to the area.

Around 3:00 p.m., eyewitnesses once again took to social media to report a smokescreen on the Crimean Bridge. The correspondent from Krym.Realii reported hearing at least five explosions.

Shortly after, both Aksyonov and the Ministry of Defense of Russia claimed for the second time that they had successfully defended against a Ukrainian missile attack. They attributed it again to the S-200 missile.

Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Air Force, mentioned that he lacked details about the explosions in Crimea on August 12. Nonetheless, he said that blocking the Crimean Bridge would not have happened without reason.

According to military sources, the Crimean Bridge is currently in what's termed the "ventilation stage," leading to frequent closures and openings, and it isn't operating at full capacity.

On August 22, the GUR (Main Intelligence Directorate) reported that the Russians were taking steps to sink six vessels in the Kerch Strait area. This action is supposedly aimed at safeguarding the bridge against potential attacks from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

What is known about the liquidation and self-destruction of Russian aviation

On May 13, 2023, 2 Mi-8 helicopters, a Su-34 and a Su-35 aircraft crashed in the Bryansk region bordering Ukraine.

On May 17, a reconnaissance plane crashed in northern Russia.

On August 7, Ukrainian soldiers from the 47th Brigade "landed" a Russian helicopter in the Zaporizhzhia region. Another one - in the morning of August 9.

On August 23, the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine shot down a Russian military aircraft near Snake Island that was trying to attack Ukrainian defenders.

Also on Wednesday, information appeared on the Internet that a Russian Mi-8 helicopter had recently landed at one of Ukraine's airfields, and the crew allegedly surrendered to the Ukrainian military. The intelligence preliminarily confirmed the information and promised to provide details later.

On August 23, an Embraer business jet carrying Wagner PMC leader Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed in the Tver region of Russia.

More than 20% of Russia's recorded losses of manned aircraft and helicopters over the 18 months of the full-scale invasion were not caused by the Ukrainian Defense Forces, but by system failures, pilot errors, friendly fire, and other incidents not directly related to hostilities, Newsweek writes.