Rare Trophy Found on Crimea Shore Could Help Russia Foil Future Naval Raids

Russian forces in Crimea have captured a pioneering Ukrainian naval drone off the coast of the peninsula, according to Russian military bloggers and open-source intelligence accounts.

The Ukrainian-made MAGURA V5 naval drone was attempting to target Russian vessels in western Crimea when "it fell intact into Russian hands," according to the Russian Telegram channel, Military Informant, which offered no further details.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian military for comment via email.

During the 21-month old war against Moscow, Kyiv has become a powerhouse of unmanned technology development, not least in the water. Ukraine has cultivated a fleet of uncrewed surface drones used to strike Russian assets in the Black Sea, largely around the Crimean Peninsula that Kyiv has vowed to reclaim from Russian control.

Without a powerful navy to take on Moscow's Black Sea Fleet based in the southern Crimean port city of Sevastopol, Ukraine has poured resources into its unmanned kamikaze naval drones, which experts said earlier this year Russia was ill-equipped to defend against.

The reports of the Russian seizing of a MAGURA waterborne drone raises questions about how Moscow could use the captured technology, including how to better defend against the uncrewed surface vehicles in future Ukrainian attacks.

The MAGURA V5, or Maritime Autonomous Guard Unmanned Robotic Apparatus, is thought to be around 5.5 meters (18 feet) long and measure 1.5 meters (5 feet) in height, and able to deliver a payload of approximately 320 kilograms (700 pounds), according to NavalNews.

"Magura shows our possibilities in creating new technological naval drones, to use the philosophy of not being aggressive but deterring our territories, for example in the Black Sea," Ivan Sybyriakov, who heads up the unmanned systems development at Ukraine's state-owned SpetsTechnoExport—which produces the Magura—told the publication.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that it had discovered four uncrewed naval boats belonging to the Ukrainian Navy in the western Black Sea. Moscow said the four unmanned vessels were heading towards Crimea, and that its defenses had destroyed the boats. It is not clear whether the reports of a captured MAGURA and the Defense Ministry's statement are related.

In mid-August, Ukraine's security service released footage of the country's "SeaBaby" kamikaze naval drone, which it said was used to strike the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea with Russia and several Russian vessels in the Black Sea.

"Sea surface drones are a unique invention of the Security Service of Ukraine," Vasyl Maliuk, the head of Ukraine's SBU security service, told CNN.

Ukraine's experimental naval drones can be tailored and adapted for each scenario, U.K.-based drone expert Steve Wright previously told Newsweek. Ukraine's naval drones, both surface and underwater, are broadly made up of a standard set of components, but each unmanned vehicle is likely to be very slightly different to the last, he commented earlier this year.

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