Russian Black Sea Fleet's Woes Worsen As Ship 'Sank' by Ukraine Drones

Ukrainian drones sank a Russian Tarantul-class corvette near Sevastopol in annexed Crimea late last month, a Ukrainian partisan group said on Thursday.

Ukrainian partisan group "Atesh," which is based in Crimea, said in a post on Telegram that its members discovered a sunken Tarantul-class corvette in Hrafska Bay, Sevastopol, which likely was "shot down during an attack by sea drones" several weeks ago.

The group provided coordinates that confirms that the corvette "sank" between December 28 and 31, 2023, the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Thursday.

Newsweek couldn't independently verify the partisan group's claims, and has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.

It marks the latest blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose Black Sea Fleet has been targeted by Ukraine in the war as it seeks to reverse his 2014 annexation of Crimea. The region is Russia's central logistics hub for its forces in southern Ukraine.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has suffered extensive casualties throughout the war. Its flagship, Moskva, was attacked in April 2022. In September 2023, Ukraine launched a missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, reportedly killing a number of leading officers and taking out a Russian submarine.

The U.K. defense secretary, Grant Shapps, said on December 26, shortly after an attack on the port of Feodosia, that Russia had lost 20 percent of its Black Sea Fleet in the previous four months.

"The Russians lost another important weapon in the Black Sea. For which we congratulate everyone," Atesh said. "We will gradually expel the occupying army from Ukrainian territories and restore justice."

The ISW noted that Russian officials and authorities installed by the Kremlin in Crimea had claimed that Russian forces repelled Ukrainian air and naval drone strikes against Sevastopol on December 28 and 30, 2023.

"This confirmation of a previously unaccounted-for successful Ukrainian strike indicates that Ukraine's recent strike campaign against occupied Crimea may have been more successful than has been confirmed thus far by open sources," the think tank said.

The ISW added that Ukrainian forces previously conducted a successful strike campaign against Russian Black Sea Fleet assets last summer that forced Russian forces to move ships away from its main base in occupied Sevastopol, Crimea.

The think tank was referring to satellite images dated October 1 and 2, 2023 showed that Russia's Black Sea Fleet was fleeing from the port of Sevastopol to Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia and the Russian naval port in Feodosia.

Experts close to Ukraine's Defense Ministry previously told Newsweek that Kyiv is embarking on a strategy to "demilitarize" the Black Sea Fleet as part of steps toward eventually liberating the peninsula.

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