By Jake Epstein
Nov 6, 2024
Business Insider
Ukraine carried out a drone attack on Russian warships in the Caspian Sea for the first time.
The Wednesday attack hit the Russian port city of Kaspiysk, hundreds of miles from the front lines.
It’s the latest blow to the Russian navy, which has taken a beating in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian forces attacked Russian navy vessels in the Caspian Sea for the first time Wednesday, the latest demonstration of Kyiv’s long-range strike capabilities.
The Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security of Ukraine published the attack footage on social media. It said that Kyiv’s forces had expanded the “zone of strikes” by “hitting Russia’s Caspian Sea Fleet in Kaspiysk,” a port city hundreds of miles from the front lines.
The videos shared by the Ukrainian government appear to capture the moment one of the attacking unmanned aircraft dives to strike its target. Anti-aircraft fire can be heard in the background in some of the footage, suggesting that the Russians attempted to defend against the attack.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of countering disinformation at Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, shared additional footage of the strikes and confirmed the attack at Kaspiysk in a message on the Telegram messaging platform.
Business Insider could not immediately verify the footage.
Sergey Melikov, the governor of Russia’s Dagestan region, wrote on Telegram that air defenses destroyed one drone over Kaspiysk. He said the incident is under investigation and asked that locals do not share photos or videos “that could assist the enemy.”
Kyiv’s armed forces have not publicly claimed responsibility for the attack, but Ukrainian media reported it was an operation on behalf of the country’s military intelligence agency, known as the HUR. The attack reportedly damaged two missile ships at the port.
The Wednesday attack marks the latest blow to the Russian Navy, which has taken heavy losses in the Black Sea. Ukraine has regularly used domestically produced missiles and naval drones to wreak havoc on Moscow’s warships.
Ukraine doesn’t have a traditional navy with a fleet of warships, but through this campaign of asymmetrical warfare, Kyiv, over the past two years, has effectively forced Moscow to relocate
the Black Sea Fleet away from its headquarters in the occupied Crimean peninsula and closer to Russian territory.
While driving the enemy’s naval forces away from Crimea, Ukraine has sunk, destroyed, or damaged at least 32 medium and large Russian naval vessels, a senior US defense official said last month.
Beyond the fighting at sea, Ukraine has increasingly developed its long-range strike capabilities to attack land targets deep inside Russia. Kyiv has used homemade drones to strike several key military facilities in recent weeks, including ammunition depots and airfields.