Ukraine said its naval drones damaged a Russian submarine in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, in a special operation it claimed was the first such attack. Underwater drones known as “sub sea baby” struck the Kilo-class submarine, inflicting “critical damage,” the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, said Monday in a post on Telegram. The submarine was equipped with four launch systems for Russia’s Kalibr cruise missiles, according to the SBU.
Moscow denied Ukraine’s claim. “Not a single ship or submarine of the Black Sea fleet stationed in the bay of the Novorossiysk Naval Base, nor their crews, were damaged as a result of the sabotage and are serving as usual,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a Telegram post, citing Alexey Rulev, head of the press office of the Russian Black Sea fleet. The SBU posted a video on social media of a large explosion in waters at what it said was the dock in Novorossiysk.
Bloomberg wasn’t able to independently verify the report.
Despite lacking a deployable navy, Ukraine has waged a campaign of attacks during the war targeting Russia’s Black Sea fleet using surface water drones. The strikes forced Russia to redeploy most of the fleet from its Sevastopol naval base in occupied Crimea to Novorossisyk on the eastern Black Sea coast. The fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol were also hit by a Ukrainian missile in September 2024.
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