By Sam Doak, OSINT producer
Ukrainian military channels released footage that appears to show a Russian warship being targeted and sunk by multiple naval drones.
The footage, filmed from at least four drones, shows the unmanned vessels approaching the Caesar Kunikov, a 112.5-metre landing ship deployed as part of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
While the exact extent and nature of the damage inflicted is unclear from the video provided alone, at least two drones appear to have detonated towards the rear of the ship’s port side.
Referencing publicly available images of the Kunikov, Sky News has confirmed that this is the vessel shown.
Through examination of the video shared by Ukraine, it is possible to determine where the Kunikov was hit. One section shows a drone closely approaching the vessel’s port side.
In a later clip, a second nears the same area, showing it to be heavily damaged and partially alight.
The scale of the damage is made clear from a section of the video shot from further away, which shows the ship aflame, and heavily tilting towards its port side.
According to the Ukrainian armed forces, this operation was carried out by Group 13, a specialised unit within Ukraine’s intelligence directorate.
On its public Telegram channel, the directorate relayed news of the operation, stating, “the enemy ship was attacked by Magura V5 sea attack drones near the shores of the temporarily occupied Crimea near the city of Alupka” and as a result “Caesar Kunikov received critical holes on the left side and began to sink”.
While the sinking of the Kunikov has not yet been independently confirmed, this narrative has not been disputed by Russian officials or military bloggers.
Available footage confirms that the ship has been at the very least been heavily damaged.
