Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian tugboat on the coast of the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula early on Thursday, Kyiv’s GUR military intelligence said.
Grayscale footage published by the GUR showed what appeared to be a drone quickly approaching a ship on a body of water before the connection is lost.
“A special unit of the Ninth Department of Ukraine’s military intelligence successfully struck a Russian raid tugboat off the coast of the temporarily occupied Crimea,” the GUR said.
It identified the boat as either the “Saturn” or “Proteus,” and said the attack took place in Lake Panske, a lagoon on Crimea’s north-west coast adjoining the Black Sea.
Kyiv’s underpowered navy has inflicted a string of successful hits on Russia in the Black Sea, despite facing setbacks on land, where it is losing ground.
The sinkings are an embarrassment for Moscow, which has been forced to move boats from its historic Sevastopol naval base in Crimea to the port of Novorossiysk, further east.
