How Naval Drones Helped Ukraine Beat Russia in the Black Sea

Since the invasion began on February 24, 2022, Ukraine maintained its efforts to counter the offensive of the troops of Russia who seek to advance on the battle front from territories they have already been able to occupy.

In the midst of this scenario, on August 6, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a surprising change in strategy for dealing with war .

Since that date, his forces have led a cross-border military incursion which forced the Kremlin to devote part of its resources to the Kursk region.

According to various analysts, one of the objectives of this measure is that Russia moves some of its weapons and troops to defend this area which in turn could hamper their advance on Ukrainian soil.

Take control of locations in your territory would also leave Ukraine in a better position for possible negotiations .

For more than two years that the war raged, Combat drones have positioned themselves as a armament essential for kyiv-led forces .

Not only on the battle front in the east of the country, but also in the Black Sea where they participated in multiple confrontations.

This is a key route for both factions which, since before the war, was indispensable for the export of agricultural products from Ukraine and oil from Russia.

At the start of the invasion in February 2022, Kremlin threatened by naval power greater than Ukraine’s .

In fact, most of the ships from the latter country They were confiscated by Russia in 2014 when his troops completed the annexation of Crimea.

However, despite the disparity, Ukraine has managed to develop unmanned marine drones that have brought the Russian Navy under control .

One of the tools they used is the Magura .

In appearance, this combat device It looks like a ship and does not stand out for the presence of large guns or explosives at a glance. .

However, its deployment helped change the course of the conflict and break the Russian blockade in the Black Sea.

With this naval drone, the Ukrainian forces were able to damage or destroy around twenty warships from Russia, according to relief time .

And one of its most remarkable features is that Each unit is valued at nearly $200,000. .

This amount is much less than the billions of dollars that landing ships or missile carriers can cost.

The use of marine drones by Ukraine has not only had the effect an imminent risk to Russian fleets, but also a potential threat to its ports and bases. naval.

President Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, told the aforementioned media that “the only thing Russians understand is the language of force.” “They will not stop the war if they do not feel the danger of continuing to fight us” .

Although various analysts have suggested that No single type of weapon can ensure victory in a war; they can significantly influence its outcome. This was the case in the war in Ukraine.

When the Russian invasion broke out in February 2022, On the first day, the Russian flagship, the Moskva, positioned itself near Serpents’ Island in the Black Sea. where Ukraine maintained a barracks.

The ship’s crew, by radio, They demanded that Ukrainian troops surrender .

Faced with the latter’s categorical refusal, Moskva River opened fire and the defenders of the island were killed or taken prisoner.

Two months later, in mid-April of the same year, Ukraine responded with an attack on the specimen .

From kyiv, they assured at the time that They launched two Neptune missiles which hit the ship and sank it. .

On the other hand, The Russian Defense Ministry said the ship sank because of a fire that caused ammunition to explode. that they had on board.

However, They did not specify the initial cause of the fire. as saved by the BBC .

After this episode, President Zelensky told Time that Moscow’s defeat “changes the position of the pieces on the chessboard” .

For Ukraine, The ship was not only a military objective, but also a symbolic one. since it participated in the Russian offensive from the beginning of the invasion.

Although the operation was a success for Ukrainian troops, Russia continued to exert power over its coasts and maintained a blockade. which interrupted traffic and the movement of goods in the port of Odessa, the largest in the country.

In order to prevent them from landing on the beaches, Ukraine has resorted to laying mines in the sand and along the southern coast .

The Kremlin’s goal was exhaust the Ukrainian economy .

Since this has had repercussions on other countries, the United Nations ( UN ) and Turkey proposed an agreement to resume grain exports, which was accepted by Russia. in July 2022.

This way, About a thousand cargo ships were allowed to transport Ukrainian food to the rest of the world.

But as we know, The war continues and Ukrainian forces are looking for new strategies and weapons to counter the invasion. Russian in different ways.

So they focused on development unmanned drones that will stand out for being more economical and, of course, efficient .

Like many other devices of this type, Ukrainian naval drones were designed in a garage .

According to information gathered by the aforementioned media, in 2022, a group of friends consisting of former government officials, engineers, executives and technology investors focused on creating tools that could contribute to the efforts from Kyiv.

A team member reported that, Having no military experience on the ground, they believed they could provide more effective support from their own area. of knowledge.

“We realized that We wouldn’t be much use if we walked around with guns. assault.”

Based on this principle, they investigated the weapons and They started to experiment .

During these tests, they noticed that If they put a Starlink satellite dish on top of a quadcopter, they could increase its range significantly.

This resulted in They were able to create a drone capable of crossing the front lines to perform surveillance and direct attack tasks. by throwing grenades at Russian positions.

The effectiveness of the devices was noted, so Brigadier General Ivan Lukashevych, a senior officer of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), proposed a partnership to enable them to carry out a maritime version of the system placing a Starlink antenna on a motorboat to improve its range.

It only took a few weeks The team was able to build a few operational examples, so a permit was issued to carry out an attack with these naval drones.

The target was the port of Sevastopol headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

“They had no idea what was going to happen” Lukashevich said, recalling this episode with the aforementioned magazine.

But the situation did not go as planned: As operators steered the drones away, the screens went dark .

The reason for these technical problems was that Starlink did not want its technology to be used for such missions in Crimea .

“Starlink wasn’t meant to fight wars. It was meant for people to watch Netflix, relax, connect to the internet. “for school and doing good and peaceful things, not drone attacks,” Musk later explained in an interview with his biographer, Walter Isaacson, published in the Washington Post in September 2023.

It is good to remember that the tycoon is the owner of the said company born from a SpaceX project. Other companies he runs include Tesla, Neuralink and the social network X (formerly Twitter).

Faced with the unforeseen events they faced, Lukashevich ordered engineers to look for an alternative solution .

A few months later, were able to rethink communication systems of naval drones.

The next step was to start using them in multiple attacks like the one that occurred on July 17, 2023 on the bridge that connects Russia to Crimea.

The Ukrainian offensive generated serious damage to the structure, so the Kremlin responded by firing missiles at the ports from cities like Odessa.

Along with this, they resumed the blockade in the Black Sea.

Until then, Ukraine also had drones called Sea Baby, which could carry more explosives. and this had been developed by the SBU.

In order to warn Russia of the consequences of its measures, An attack was ordered on the port of Novorossiysk .

This area has an important strategic role for the Kremlin because it serves as a hub for oil exports.

Former Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov told Time: “The Russians had to understand that we have nothing to lose” .

“If our ports on the Black Sea don’t work, neither will theirs.” stressed the head of that portfolio at the time, who was present at the meeting during which the decision to attack the said port was taken.

In August 2023, A naval drone of Ukrainian troops attacked a Russian landing ship called Olenegorsky Gornyak and caused significant damage to it. so it had to be towed.

SBU chief Vasyl Maliuk assured that This action showed that they could sink Russian ships even if they were far away. which led them to no longer consider themselves as “the masters of the Black Sea”.

Moreover, they were “forced to hide their ships.” through moves such as taking them to more distant ports and preventing them from approaching the Ukrainian coast.

They demonstrated by their offensive that, If the Kremlin attacked their ports, they could also respond with its looming naval drones.

“They don’t control the sea anymore. Not all of it.” Zelensky said this months after this episode, as reported by the aforementioned media outlets.

Regarding Magura, one of the developers said that “One of them is enough to pierce an aircraft carrier” .

And while he acknowledged that it “probably” wouldn’t sink him immediately, he assured that “If you hit it with five or six of these, then yes, it will sink.” .