Russia: Ukraine used unknown western-made marine drones to attack reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs
The attack on the Russian warship Ivan Khurs in the Black Sea was carried out by Western-made unmanned boats, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing an "informed source."
This source explained that the kamikaze boats were launched from a Ukrainian naval base in Ochakiv, which was established in 2018 with the participation of the US armed forces. The drones were allegedly controlled using Starlink modules supplied by Elon Musk. American satellites were used to provide the GPS coordinates for the attack.
According to RIA Novosti, the drones used for the attack looked different from Ukrainian Mikola-3 marine drones, which attacked Sevastopol in 2022. According to the Russian "source", it was "an unadvertised supply of new Western-made marine unmanned aerial vehicles," most likely British.
The "source" of RIA Novosti blamed the UK for "continuing the provocative course to escalate the conflict and expand its geography," because the attack happened at more than 200 nautical miles from the area of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in the Turkish economic zone near the Bosporus Strait.
Russian and Ukrainian descriptions of this attack, which took place on May 25, vary significantly. According to the Ukrainian sources, the Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs was badly damaged and was towed to Sevastopol. A video appeared on the Internet, supposedly confirming this.
There is also a video allegedly taken from one of the kamikaze drones approaching the ship. At the same time, the signal from the drone breaks off a few meters from the target, and it is not known what happened next.
According to the Russians, on the contrary, all three Ukrainian kamikaze boats were destroyed from the ship guns, the Ivan Khurs received no damage and sailed to its home base by itself.
Both Russia and Ukraine call each other’s video evidence fakes. The Ukrainians note that the weapons installed on the Ivan Khurs cannot be used to strike kamikaze boats as shown in the video. The Russians point out that the ship is equipped with large-caliber machine guns and Igla man-portable missile systems.
Ukrainian analysts claim that the video of the Ivan Khurs returning to Sevastopol, shown by Russian TV channels, was posted on YouTube two years ago.
There is no confirmed information about the incident. At the same time, the very fact of the attack is undeniable, and it means a clear threat to Russian warships, which have up until now been accustomed to reigning supreme off the Ukrainian coast.