‘Massive’ Ukrainian Drone Strike Hits Russia’s Black Sea Fleet
Saturday’s drone strike was the biggest Ukrainian attack on Russian Black Sea Fleet in six months when they sank flagship cruiser “Moskva.”
After weeks of Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian cities and towns, Kyiv appears to have landed a major counterpunch, hitting the Russian Black Sea fleet off the coast of Crimea.
“Ukraine has carried out a ‘massive’ drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, damaging one warship,” the BBC reported citing Russian sources. “Nine drones were used, a top official said. Ukraine has not commented,” the broadcaster added.
Saturday’s drone strike was the biggest Ukrainian attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in six months when they sank the flagship cruiser Moskva on April 14.
Watch history being made. | Ukraine attacks the Russian Sevastopol Naval Base using drone boats and aerial drones. Per @ckasapoglu1 this is the first such strike ever: the first air-sea robotic strike in the world in a real combat situation, ever. pic.twitter.com/nNOY1JBqr3
— Mike (@Doranimated) October 29, 2022
The French TV channel Euronews reported the details of the drone strike citing Russian sources:
The Russian-installed governor of the city of Sevastopol described a drone attack early on Saturday on Russian Black Sea fleet installations as the most “massive” of the conflict in Ukraine.
“The most massive attack by drones and remotely piloted surface vehicles on the waters of the Bay of Sevastopol in the history of the conflict took place last night,” Mikhail Razvojaev was quoted as saying by the TASS agency.
Earlier, Razvojaev said the Russian navy had repelled a drone attack, saying no facilities had been hit and the situation was under control. All the drones involved in the attack had been “shot down”, Razvojaev added on Telegram.
The port of Sevastopol was “temporarily” closed to ships and ferries after the attack, the city’s authorities said.
The attack on the Russian fleet may have been carried out by “airborne and underwater drones,” the British newspaper Guardian suggested.
The Russian military claims to have recovered one of the underwater drone used in the attack which allegedly contained Canadian parts. The public broadcaster France24 reported:
Russia on Sunday alleged that some of the drones used to attack its fleet in Crimea had “Canadian-made navigation modules”, saying it had recovered debris from some of the weapons in the sea.
Moscow’s defence ministry said its specialists had “conducted an examination of Canadian-made navigation modules installed on the marine unmanned vehicles”.
The Ukrainian counterstrike comes after Russia unleashed a barrage of Iranian-made suicide drones, primarily targeting power stations and energy infrastructure ahead of the winter months.
“Earlier this month, Moscow intensified its missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s power stations, waterworks and other key infrastructure, damaging 40% of Ukraine’s electric system and forcing the government to implement rolling blackouts. Kyiv’s mayor said the Ukrainian capital’s power system was operating in ’emergency mode’,” the Associated Press noted Sunday.
Russia Accuses UK Navy of Blowing Up Nord Stream Pipelines, London Rejects Allegations
Russia on Saturday accused the British Navy of carrying out last month’s undersea explosions that destroyed its Baltic Sea pipelines to western Europe.
Moscow “accused personnel from Britain’s Royal Navy of helping Ukraine to plan the alleged attack on its fleet at Sevastopol, and of involvement in the explosions which blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last month – giving no evidence for either claim,” The UK daily Independent reported Sunday.
On September 26, Russia reported that its 760-mile Baltic Sea pipelines to Germany were rapidly losing pressure. Four massive leaks were found in the undersea natural gas pipelines. The incident was later attributed to large explosions most likely caused by an act of sabotage, German and European investigators concluded.
The Irish Times newspaper reported the latest Russian allegations:
Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday said that British navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month, directly accusing a leading Nato member of sabotaging critical Russian infrastructure.
The defence ministry did not give evidence for its claim.
“According to available information, representatives of this unit of the British navy took part in the planning, provision and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26th this year – blowing-up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines,” the ministry said.
British government rejected the Russian claims. Sky News (UK) reported:
Britain has denied Russian claims that Royal Navy personnel blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines last month, saying the story is “invented”.
A Ministry of Defence tweet said: “To detract from their disastrous handling of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Defence is resorting to peddling false claims of an epic scale.
“This invented story says more about arguments going on inside the Russian government than it does about the West.”
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Comments
Bully for Ukraine, I guess? I don’t support us funding this war. It should have never have happened. I blame Washington for wanting this war to happen.
Yep. The people most likely to cause me and my family harm are in Washington and REALLY want this war. I guess it makes me reactionary, but when they want a specific thing to happen, I don’t.
Oooh! Dat hurts!
“The people most likely to cause me and my family harm are in Washington…”
You talking about the Chicoms and the ones on their payroll?
Sundowner gave the OK for a little war
So Washington forced Russia to attack Ukraine? I think it’s more likely that Russia took advantage of Biden’s brain deficit. I have to blame progressive fascists for choosing terrible presidential candidates. Remember they chose Jimmy Carter, BJ Clinton Obama the Liar, Hilary Clinton and Brainless Biden.
Well, they kept involving themselves in the internal conflicts in Ukraine, of which one side is predominantly russian, so….yeah, keep poking the bear, and the bear will eventually poke back. This goes back to 2014 – russia actually pushing this far into the east is just a continuation of hostilities that have already been happening.
Biden took bribes of millions of dollars from Russia. This explains his terrible handling of this conflict. In the beginning he promised Russia that the US and NATO would not interfere in his war. He never should have done that. We should have forces manning Ukrainians anti air and radars, along with pilots flying Ukraine airplanes. And manning long rang guided missiles. Then there is raising volunteer brigades from the free world, trained, equipped and delivered to Ukrainians border. NATO special forces could stoke jet targets in Ukraine also.
Only Putin wanted this
We got Obamacares (e.g. progressive prices) and Ukrainians got a rogue regime in Kiev and Slavic Spring in progress.
That’s an uniformed position. The Washington establishment has certainly not wanted this war. It was started by Russia, and at root it’s because Russian leaders do not approve of and are threatened by Slavs who don’t look to Russia as their master.
I think your final sentence is correct.
However, some portion of the Washington, DC establishment does want this war. There are a lot of benefits to various entities within and affiliated with Washington, DC. There’s fighting the Bear (in a proxy war) for those stuck in the Cold War; there’s possibilities related to globalism; there’s potential for graft and money laundering; there’s the concept of distracting the electorate….
Drones could make large naval fleets obsolete. Send out a task force and the enemy sends out a massive drone strike on the cheap and takes out a carrier or reduces it’s effectiveness.
EMP could make drone strikes and a lot more in effective. Be careful what you wish for.
How do you think drones would do against AA at 1000 yards?
Unless they were exceptionally fast, air drones would be shredded!
In much the same way homing torpedoes and sir power made battleships ineffective.
Sadly, Americans are going to learn this when cheap missiles from China take out the USN’s carriers.
I think you have unrealistic ideas about drone capabilities or about where “large naval fleets” operate. We’re not talking ‘drones’ like US UCAVs – those require airfields and are too expensive to “swarm” in suicide missions. We’re talking about things with limited range and limited payloads.
Hitting ships in port is easy if you can overcome/overwhelm defense systems. Hitting moving ships that are at sea, a significant distance from land, deployed in defensive formations, is a whole different bag.
The minesweeper sustained minor damage when it ran into the bottom of the Black Sea. 😉 The thing with all wars is that every measure is usually countered quickly. This presentation really explains how things happen over a very short period of time. I don’t think that I have ever learned more in an hour of my life.
Terman’s “Radio Engineer’s Handbook” is as close to an Academic Gospel as they come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo
Interesting video. Thx!
They really want to push us into WW3 hopefully by Nov2
A war which, with the people currently in charge, we would not win. The best we could expect is a draw. There would be no winners because some fool with an itchy trigger finger would toss a tactical nuke.
Stock up. Let Sam’s and Costco be your friend.
.
Thanks, Vijeta.
Thanks, Ira!
Smarmy, under-the-breath comments, that playing at/hoping Ukraine loses to Russia will never be a good look. Especially for right-conservatives. Same with the obtuse internet game or feigning indifference. The half hearted and grossly uninformed notion that by allowing Ukraine’s annexation – will sate Putin’s appetite – or we’ll avert WORLD WAR III. He gonna NOOOK US! We can’t afford it $$$! Biden’s globohomo new world order
Or fools paraphrasing-quoting Orwell. We have always been at war with Eurasia!
Hot or Cold, we’ve been at war with Russia since the Bolshevik revolution. . Pick your preferred version. Remember to include Putin as a choice. For the past hundred years the Russian civilization have attacked American culture, labor, academia, media etc. etc. And now – because Biden and the Woke Marxists/Maoistsn – we’re to forget all of it? Roll over and get patted on our bellies. Pretend none of it happened.
Now is the time to shiv the f’rs. Now. Not when it seems prudent in some alt-history fantasy. Now.
I don’t think anyone wants the Russians to win, As for the annexation, did that happen under Obama? We want the Globalist/New World Order to lose. They are a bigger threat than Russia.
In terms of US politics, when was Crimea annexed? How about Georgia (not part of Ukraine, yest, still a recent prior Russian annexation.) The one before that? Perhaps the Russian regime didn’t feel the need to annex anything while Trump was US President because he was giving them so much. Or perhaps some other rationale was, and is, at work.
The other point being annexation by pretext has been a recurring practice under the current Russian nationalist regime, which has interesting ideas around borders, which territory belongs to whom, and the scope of “national interest.” Meanwhile, there are two remote “Russian” enclaves, one to the West of Ukraine, the other by Poland, on the sea coast.
Trump gave the Russians nothing but a bad time: blocking Nordstream 2, making U.S. energy independent and a major energy exporter, killing hundreds of Wagner Group soldiers in Syria, ending JPCOA. OTOH the Obama-Biden regime took the opposite position on every one of those issues. The Washington establishment is anti-Russian in name only.
Perhaps the Russian regime didn’t feel the need to annex anything while Trump was US President because he was giving them so much.
Wow, that’s an entirely unaware hot take.
“…while Trump was US President because he was giving them so much.”
I’d ask for you to give us an example, but I know you can’t. Those with TDS just never can stop.
If that is what you want there is no reason for you and like minded individuals not to join the international forces and fight the Russians on the front lines in Ukraine. That does not mean that the United States should continue to fund and fight a proxy war with Russia.
Many Americans recall the massive carnage of pointless wars including WWI, Iraq, our involvement in Libya and Syria and have no desire to promote more death and devastation.
This conflict has been going on since 2014 and Russian control of Crimea and buffer states on its western border have been key ingredients to its state policy for hundreds of years.
The absolute refusal of this administration to even consider negotiations is insanity. The leftist media’s seeming acceptance of a nuclear war as a viable solution is beyond insanity.
Hot or Cold, we’ve been at war with Russia since the Bolshevik revolution.
No. Not true. And believing that shows an incredibly shallow analysis of history and foreign policy.
GWB, we may not have been at war with Russia, but Russia has been at war with us since 1917.
Damn near every ill in the world today lies at the feet of the russians. An evil country. We should have nuked the damn place at the end of WW2 and saved the world from torture and slavery.
Maybe the WEF ratbags look forward to a limited nuclear war. After all, with the US, Russian and many European capitals gone, there would be room to institute a real New World Order.
Russia now accuses Ukraine of siccing mosquitos on them
Taking the fecklessness of US foreign policy, and the venality of the military-industrial complex as givens, why does this one feel different from Iraq II, Afghanistan and Syria?
Obama (Iraq II, Slavic Spring, etc.) has been replaced by Biden.
I have 2 comments–This War is beginning to sound and look like Vietnam from decades ago where we were on the ground at least a decade before this nation admitted. Once it was public how many of our military were lost because there was no plan to win no plan to lose no plan to leave??? Where are the 30/50million cells phones out there in the area making videos–why are there no resident cell phone videos
Let the nazis and commies fight themselves with their own money. We’re losing because we’re paying both of them.