Ukrainian sea drones have sunk a Russian warship in the Black Sea in the most successful attack of its kind to date.
Footage captured by the drones shows them navigating choppy waters as they home in on the Ivanovets, a Tarantul-class missile corvette while Russian sailors respond with a hail of bullets.
The sea drones struck the ship’s hull multiple times, causing heavy damage which Ukraine said eventually sank Ivanovets.
“As a result of a number of direct strikes to the hull, the Russian vessel sustained critical damage causing immobilisation – it heaved aft and sank,” Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) said.
Russia has not commented and it is unclear if anyone died in the attack.
Warship worth £55m
The GUR said the raid took place on Jan 31 in Lake Donuzlav, a saltwater inlet which is home to the Russian navy’s Southern Naval Base on the western coast of occupied Crimea.
It claimed the warship is worth as much as £55 million ($70 million).
Footage shows the drones racing towards the warship’s port side and striking the same spot repeatedly.
Later footage filmed from a distance by other unmanned sea vehicles (USVs) shows the ship exploding with a mushroom cloud rising into the sky.
The bow of the Ivanovets was left jutting upwards out of the water, with the rest of the ship submerged below the surface in the final scene of the footage shared by the GUR.
Ukraine has used sea drones to damage Russia’s numerically and technologically superior navy before.
But the Ivanovets marks the first time in the war that sea drones have successfully sank a Russian vessel as previous attacks have only disabled or damaged them.