The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) claims to have successfully struck a Russian corvette in the Caspian Sea with a strike drone.
As per Monday’s SSU statement it carried out the strike as part of a 40-day wave of assaults on military facilities, fuel and energy infrastructure, air defence systems, and logistics and maritime targets.
It described the warship struck as a Project 12418 Molniya missile boat; as per Ukrainian military news website Militarnyi the only such warship operating in those waters was the Russian Navy corvette Stupinets.
The 57-metre missile boat is capable of up to 40 knots and has a crew of 44. It is believed to carry eight Kh-35UE anti-ship missiles, and a MANPADS launcher with the Pantsir-M gun/missile system, as well as a modernised phased-array radar system.
It’s unclear whether the attack on the corvette sank the boat or damaged it, and if the latter, what the extent of that damage was. Two other cargo ships being purportedly used to transport military cargo between Iran and Russia were also subject to drone attacks:
The SSU statement said other targets hit in the same campaign included a ‘Nebo-U’ long-range radar station at Belbek military airfield in Crimea and a fuel and lubricants storage tank at Saki military airfield on the same peninsula.
Also struck were an 92N6E ‘Gravestone’ multi-purpose radar station and its antenna tower, part of Russia’s S-400 ‘Triumph’ surface-to-air missile system. Ukrainian drones also destroyed a Tor-M2 surface-to-air missile system and a Pole-21 electronic warfare system.
Longer-range fuel and energy infrastructure assets struck by Ukrainian drones included the Filanovskyi oil rig in the Caspian Sea, and an oil pumping station at Subhankulovo in the Republic of Bashkortostan more than 800 miles from the Ukrainian border.
- You can read more details on Ukraine’s Security Service website
