Russia says it carried out a drone boat attack on a Ukrainian Navy reconnaissance ship in the mouth of the Danube River, marking Moscow’s first confirmed use of these weapons that Ukraine has deployed to great effect. The Ukrainian Navy confirmed an attack on one of its ships but did not say how the strike was carried out. Meanwhile, Ukraine carried out an aerial drone strike deep behind enemy lines on a Russian missile corvette in the Sea of Azov. You can read more about that later in this story.
“Using a high-speed uncrewed surface (USV) vehicle, the Ukrainian Navy’s Simferopol medium reconnaissance ship was defeated at the River Danube mouth,” the Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) claimed. “As a result of the attack, the Ukrainian ship sank.”
“This marks the first recorded instance of Russian forces employing a naval drone to strike a Ukrainian warship,” the official Ukrainian United24 media outlet reported.
Two videos emerged on social media showing the moment of the attack. One showed the drone boat view as it approached the Simferpol while the other was taken from a surveillance drone operating overhead.
Ukrainian officials did not name the vessel or provide details about its status.
“We confirm the fact of the strike on the ship,” Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmitry Pletenchuk told the Ukrainian Ukrinform news outlet. “Currently, the elimination of the consequences of the attack is ongoing. The overwhelming majority of the crew is safe. The search for several sailors continues. Unfortunately, one crew member was killed, and several were wounded.”
Though posting a video of the attack, Russia provided no details about the type of USV, where it was launched or any of its capabilities, beyond being able to stream video back to a controller. The Russian USV could have been launched from occupied Crimea, more than 130 miles to the east, or from a larger Navy vessel.
It is interesting to note that on Aug. 27, just a day before Russia supposedly launched its drone boat attack, a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol plane fitted with a secretive radar pod was videod by a Russian jet during a very rare mission over the western Black Sea. That’s over the region where the drone boat strike took place. The jet’s sensors are likely the best available for detecting small craft like a drone boat. You can see a video of that encounter below and read more about it in our original story here.
While the first known sea drone attack on a Ukrainian naval ship, there were claims that Russia hit a bridge near Odesa with one in February 2023. It is unclear if those claims were ever confirmed.
Russia has been working to create its own fleet of these weapons. One publicly known variant is called the Katran. Like Ukrainian versions we have written about in the past, this USV is designed to launch first-person view (FPV) aerial drones or have a mounted machine gun.
Little is publicly known about the Katran, but in May, the Ukrainian Defense Express publication pointed out some apparent limitations.
“Katran lacks satellite communication capabilities, unlike Ukrainian sea drones equipped with systems like Starlink,” the publication reported. “Instead, it relies on radio channels, limiting its operational range and making it susceptible to electronic warfare (EW) systems. The declared control range is 100–200 km, possibly extended through a network of relays.”
In April, the official Russian Izvestia news outlet noted a similar limitation.
“Transmitting a reliable radio signal still limits the range of the boats,” the publication reported.
The War Zone cannot independently verify these claims or the current status of the Katran. This is just one of several drone boats the Russians are developing of various capabilities.
For Russia, the attack is a significant new step in the ongoing battle for the Black Sea region, where Ukraine has pinned down the Russian Navy by using drone boats in a campaign unleashed in the fall of 2022. You can see videos of one of the earliest such attacks below.
As we noted earlier this year, in addition to building drone boats, Russia has also created dedicated units to operate them.
“The new units, which will be formed in all fleets, will perform reconnaissance and strike functions,” Izvestia reported in May. “According to experts, combining different types of drones will allow for effective reconnaissance, surveillance, and destruction of sea and coastal targets.”
The Russian Navy also created a course of study on these systems in the curriculum of its higher educational institutions.
“Now all cadets study the structure and characteristics of drones of various types and their use,” Izvestia pointed out. “In the future, they will master the combat use of attack drones to destroy enemy UAVs, unmanned boats and saboteurs. Classes are taught by teachers who have experience working with drones in combat zones.”
Ukraine’s drone boat campaign in the Black Sea has proven that a nation with nearly no significant remaining traditional navy but an array of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) can keep one of the world’s largest sea services at bay. Over the course of the past three and a half years, Ukraine’s USVs have attacked Russian ports, ships and the Kerch Bridge. They have forced Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) to avoid operating in the open waters of the northern Black Sea, and limit activities in other areas.
The campaign began with kamikaze drone boats, laden with explosives and set out on one-way missions to hit Russian targets. Ukraine has since made a series of advancements, turning its USVs into reusable anti-aircraft platforms, the aforementioned first-person view (FPV) drone launchers and gunboats. As we previously noted, Ukraine’s early drone boat attacks on the BSF were a “wakeup call” marking “a new point in unmanned warfare.”
Meanwhile, about 300 miles to the east, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) carried out what its commander told us was the second successful strike on a Russian warship in the Sea of Azov in the past year. The two-pronged attack was launched from deep behind enemy lines using aerial drones, Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov told us Thursday morning.
The drones first struck and destroyed the radar of the Russian Project 21631 Buyan-M missile ship, GUR stated on Telegram. A secondary attack further damaged the ship, the agency claimed, though no further details were provided. GUR produced a video of that attack, which you can see below.
The attack on the Buyan-M was significant for several reasons.
The ship was struck while it was in Temryuk Bay, GUR stated. That was more than 130 miles from the front lines and would have required a great deal of coordination to carry out. The bay is also a known launch point for ships like the Buyan-M to fire Kalibr long-range sea-launched cruise missiles at Ukraine. As we previously reported, Russia began launching missile attacks from the Sea of Azov in June of 2024 due to the Black Sea becoming more dangerous as a result of repeated attacks by Ukrainian missiles and aerial and sea drones.
The attack on the Buyan-M came while Russia was launching its largest missile and drone barrage on Ukraine since U.S. President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. At least 17 people were killed, many more were wounded, and many buildings were damaged during that bombardment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on X.
Striking the Buyan-M took one missile carrier offline, GUR stated.
“As a result of the strikes, the Russian missile ship, which was in the potential launch zone of the Kalibrs in the Temryuk Bay, was damaged and forced to leave the combat patrol area,” GUR stated. However, given the complexity of getting forces that deep behind the lines, the timing of the attack was most likely coincidental.
Still, both of these attacks show the increasing use of asymmetric drone tactics against naval vessels. While the Simferpol was probably attacked in large measure because it is one of the few larger vessels left in the Ukrainian Navy, there are other targets along Ukraine’s remaining Black Sea coastline. Given the success of Ukraine’s drone boat campaign, there is a high likelihood that we will see more Russian drone boat attacks in the near future.
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