Ukraine Deployed 'Swarming Tactics' To Sink Russian Warship

Ukraine used "swarming tactics" to take out a Russian ship with Kyiv's naval drones earlier this month, according to a new assessment.

Kyiv said on February 1 that its military intelligence agency had destroyed a Russian missile-armed corvette, the Ivanovets, with a number of seaborne drones in an overnight raid. The vessel sustained a "number of direct hits to the hull" before sinking, Kyiv said, valuing it at up to $70 million.

Ukraine used the country's MAGURA V5 surface drones in the attack, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, told The War Zone.

Ukraine's Defense Ministry also published dramatic night-time footage it said captured the moment the country's sea drones attacked the Russian missile-armed corvette in western Crimea.

Footage of the attack from several different angles showed "multiple uncrewed surface vehicles using swarming tactics to successfully strike the ship, resulting in a large explosion," the U.K. Defense Ministry then said in an intelligence update posted to social media.

The ship almost certainly sank, the U.K. government said.

Swarming tactics involve using a large number of drones, overwhelming a target's defenses. Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military and Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Black Sea emerged as a key battleground. Ukraine has vowed to reclaim Crimea, which sits to the south of the mainland on the Black Sea, but has been controlled by the Kremlin's forces since its annexation in 2014.

Ukraine has successfully eroded Russia's assets in the Black Sea using drones and long-range missile strikes. It has often enjoyed more success in the Black Sea than in its land operations in mainland Ukraine.

"This is quite a significant loss," Ukraine's Navy said following the naval drone attack. Russia only has three such vessels in its Black Sea fleet.

In late December, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said Russia had lost 20 percent of its Black Sea fleet in the previous four months.

Ukraine is known to have destroyed a Russian Kilo-class submarine, as well as damaging a number of Moscow's landing ships, such as the Minsk, the Saratov and the Olenegorsky Gornyak. In the early months of the war, Russia's Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, sank beneath the waves, with Ukraine claiming its Neptune missiles were responsible.

"The latest Ukrainian success highlights the continuing vulnerability of Russian warships operating in the Black Sea," the British Defense Ministry said. However, the fleet is "almost certainly" able to continue with its long-range strike, patrol and support duties in the Black Sea, the U.K. government evaluated.

The Kremlin has relocated some of its Black Sea assets from the peninsula to its Novorossiysk base, in Russia's Krasnodar region further from Ukraine's coastline.

Russia is also thought to be establishing another Black Sea base in Abkhazia, a breakaway region internationally recognized as part of Georgia. This would move Russia's resources in the Black Sea even further away from Ukraine's reach.

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