Ukrainian Navy denies any involvement in attack on Russian Black Sea Fleet ships

Dmytro Pletenchuk stated this on Radio Svoboda.

The unmanned boats that were allegedly used in the attack are not in service with Ukrainian military sailors.

“These drones are not used by the Naval Forces. That's the first thing. Secondly, the Naval Forces have no connection to the incident that reportedly occurred,” he said. 

Attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet

On August 1, three unmanned naval drones attacked two Russian Black Sea Fleet ships in the Black Sea. The Russian Ministry of Defense said they successfully defended against the attack and destroyed all the drones. They blamed the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the incident.

It is claimed that three marine drones attempted to attack the patrol ships Sergey Kotov and Vasily Bykov, which were about 340 km southwest of Sevastopol.

However, according to the Babel publication, sailors from at least one of the attacked ships asked for help evacuating the wounded.

Ka-29 helicopters were called to evacuate the dead and injured to the Black Sea Higher Naval School in Sevastopol.

The ship Sparta-IV appears to be civilian, but the publication's source says it's equipped with large weapons and has armed teams and military personnel on board, which would be a serious violation of international maritime law.