Yesterday, March 22, around five o'clock in the morning a series of loud explosions was heard in Sevastopil: a strike was conducted by unmanned surface vessels, as well as unspecified "air targets", as was recognized by russia’s Ministry of Defense, announcing that such an attack had been successfully repulsed.
Defense Express reminds that this is not the first time that such explosions happened in Sevastopol by means of marine kamikaze drones: on October 29, 2022, mysterious kamikaze drones attacked a ship of russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
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Although at first there were only theories regarding the drones that could have been used, later it became known that the attack on russia’s ship was carried out by Ukrainian drones and that Ukraine planning to create own fleet of such maritime kamikaze drones to fight russia’s Black Sea Fleet ships.
Therefore, it could be assumed that yesterday's attack on Sevastopil was carried out by the same kamikaze drones that had been used last autumn. However, as OSINT analyst H I Sutton points out in his blog, another drone can also claim this role.
Thus, yesterday it became known about the new USV in Ukraine: volunteers Ihor Lachenkov and Serhiy Sternenko posted its photo in public, and H I Sutton visualized how this unmanned surface vehicle might look and compared it with the previous one. It is apparently smaller in terms of size, has a more "smooth" design. There's also no indication that the platform has any cameras, communications, etc., but that doesn't mean there aren't any.
It is currently unknown what damage the drones caused, but even without damaged or sunk russian ships, such attacks still matter. H I Sutton notes: during yesterday's attack, maritime transport was paralyzed for half a day, while also it was reported that russia was also forced to withdraw two missile carriers from the bay.
Overall, with the new USVs, as well as with an increase in their number, new strikes are expected in the region of temporarily occupied Crimea, and that one of them will at least upset some for russia’s ships.
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