From the very beginning of repelling full-scale russian aggression, the Ukrainian Defense Forces began to add their victories, unique decisions and achievements to the history of wars.
The fourth year of russia-Ukraine war was no exception while the defenders of Ukraine continue to do what no one has ever done before them.
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In 2025, it was the Defense Forces of Ukraine, for the first time in history, that developed and implemented the following military operations:
Destroying an enemy submarine using an Unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV)
On December 15, 2025, the Security Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with the Naval Forces of Ukraine, critically damaged the submarine of project 636.3 Varshavyanka (Kilo-class) of the Black Sea Fleet of the russian federation by using the SubSeaBaby UUV in Novorossiysk Bay.
Analysis of the satellite image taken the next day, although it showed that the underwater drone made a slight mistake, confirmed the partial flooding of the submarine and unequivocally indicates its inoperability. The main thing is that the russian federation currently does not have the ability to repair the damaged submarine. In the best case, this can only be done in temporarily occupied Sevastopol, where, at the same time, the Ukrainians have a much better chance of completing the destruction of this russian submarine.
At the same time, the exact identification of the hit submarine is still a matter of debate. The most likely option is that it was the B-271 Kolpino submarine. In any case, thanks to this strike, the defenders of Ukraine reduced the number of combat-ready russian Kilo-class submarines in the Black Sea by half, because as of February 24, 2022, there were four of them in the water area.
It should be recalled that the first russian submarine hit was the Rostov-on-Don, which was finished off in Sevastopol on the night of August 2, 2024, after on the night of September 13, 2023, by the way, also for the first time in the history of wars, the Ukrainians were able to hit a submarine with a cruise missile.
Defeat of an enemy surface ship in the open sea using a strike UAV
On the night of August 28, 2025, as a result of the Defense Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (DIU), for the first time in history, an enemy ship in the open sea was successfully hit using a long-range kamikaze UAV. This happened in the Sea of Azov while the target was the russian corvette (small artillery and missile ships in russian classification) of Project 21631 Buyan-M.
As a result of the DIU’s attack, two UAVs hit the ship. At the same time, one of these UAVs disabled the ship's radio-electronic equipment, including the main radar system.
The peculiarity of this attack and its difference from the defeat of ships in the bay by drones is that it was an attack on a moving sea object that had activated defenses. Ukrainian drones successfully hit the enemy ship despite the presence of the AK 630-M2 Duet rapid-fire artillery system on it, which should have been responsible for destroying and countering such threats - however, it is clear from everything that the crew of the Buyan-M ship was unable to use it.
It should be noted, that later Ukraine's Special Forces struck one of russia’s newest Buyan-M missile ships while it was sailing from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea.
Destruction of enemy strategic aircraft using drones (Operation Spiderweb)
On June 1, 2025, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) implemented a covert drone attack carried deep inside russia.
This was the operation that not only went down in history as something that happened for the first time. After it, all similar operations will be called with the mention of its name - Spiderweb.
Until now, no one has ever attacked strategic bombers, which are part of the nuclear triad, during a covert operation using drones controlled remotely - thousands of kilometers away.
There is already so much articles devoted to the Operation Spiderweb that we can just simply leave a video of how Ukrainian specialists used First Contact's High-Acrobatic UAV Osa (wasp in Ukrainian) to strike precisely designated locations of Tu-22M and Tu-95MS strategic bombers, causing a real massacre of russian strategic aviation.
Shooting down an enemy jet fighter with a missile launched from a USV
On May 2, 2025, DIU’s specialists shot down a russian multi-role Su-30 fighter for the first time in history using an anti-aircraft missile launched from a Magura V7 unmanned surface vehicle (USV). Later, it turned out that two such aircraft were shot down that day. This development of events could have been predicted, as before that, on December 31, 2024, Ukrainian military intelligence successfully destroyed two Mi-8 helicopters from USVs, which was also the first time in history.
For this, the unmanned surface vehicles were equipped with AIM-9 air-to-air missiles, which were installed on inclined guides with no changes in their construction. Later, this configuration of the USV was shown publicly.
The case of the downing of fighter jets from a sea drone has proven in practice that the construction of air defense at sea can be entrusted precisely to such means, creating a whole "curtain" of cheap mass air defense means. It can be used to increase strike capabilities at sea too.
This decision has already been reflected in the concepts of forming the fleets of other states. Now other countries must plan the protection of their aircraft and air bases from small drones that can "arrive" under the fence of a military facility on an ordinary truck, as well as think over the defense of harbors from attacks by underwater drones that can travel hundreds of kilometers unnoticed.
Read more: Ukraine's Magura V7 USV: New Photos Reveal Naval Drone Armed With Surface-to-Air Missiles at Sea
