Russia Floats Lifesize Submarine Decoy of Sunken Vessel in Crimea

Open-source satellite imagery captured last week showed Crimea's Black Sea port of Sevastopol placed a life-sized submarine decoy after Ukraine claimed it had sunk one of the Russian vessels.

According to a satellite image posted on Wednesday by MT Anderson, an open-source intelligence account on X (formerly Twitter), a full-scale submarine model can be seen at a naval base in Sevastopol on August 9, which resembled the Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric attack submarine.

The appearance of the decoy comes after Ukraine's military claimed on August 3 that the Rostov-on-Don, an Improved Kilo-class boat of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, was sunk on the spot during a Ukrainian missile strike on Sevastopol the day before. An S-400 air defense system was damaged as well.

The Russian submarine model could be used for decoying Ukrainian attacks in the future to avoid more losses of the Black Sea Fleet's assets, specialist outlet Naval News cited maritime security analyst H.I. Sutton.

The United Kingdom military has also suggested that the Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol "highly likely" resulted in the sinking of the Rostov-on-Don. "The strike highlights the increasing risk to Russian forces in Crimea," the British defense ministry said in a post on X on Wednesday.

The Kilo-class submarines, or Project 877 in the Soviet designation, have been built for over four decades. Its improved version, Project 636, features improved quieting, propulsion, and automation designs. Besides torpedoes and naval mines, they are capable of firing Kalibr cruise missiles.

Since the Kremlin's full-scale invasion in 2022, the Russian Kilo-class submarines of the Black Sea Fleet have seen extensive use in long-range strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure. They constituted a serious threat to Ukraine as the country's navy was virtually non-existent.

Ukraine launched a missile and drone attack on the Sevastopol shipyard on September 13, 2023. The Russian defense ministry later confirmed that three Ukrainian missiles hit their targets, which "damaged" two ships under repair. They were the Rostov-on-Don and landing ship Minsk.

Newsweek could not independently verify the satellite imagery and has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment by email.

Russia-occupied Crimea has been under Ukraine's attacks since Kyiv received long-range missiles from its Western allies and developed indigenous aerial and sea drones. A third of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been taken out of operation due to attacks, the Ukrainian Navy claimed in June.

There are three other Improved Kilo-class submarines in the Russian Black Sea Fleet's service. In late July, the Ukrainian Navy revealed that Russia has deployed three submarines in the Azov-Black Sea region for the first time but teased that the Black Sea Fleet has become a submarine fleet.

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