Sea drones hit Russian warship
Moscow alleges Patriot missiles downed its plane
Ukraine claimed Thursday it used sea drones to sink a small Russian warship in the Black Sea as Russian investigators alleged its military transport plane that crashed last month was brought down by two U.S.-made Patriot missiles fired by Kyiv’s forces.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known as GUR, published a video that it said showed naval drones assaulting the Russian missile-armed corvette Ivanovets on Wednesday. The footage released on GUR’s social media purports to show multiple naval drones crashing into a vessel and exploding. According to GUR, the ship costing between $60 million and $70 million (U.S.) was on patrol on Lake Donuzlav in western Crimea, when a GUR special unit struck it.
Disinformation has been part of the war, which marks its second anniversary on Feb. 24, and it was not possible to independently verify either side’s claims.
Private security firm Ambrey said Ukraine used up to six sea drones, each of which usually carry 300 kilograms of explosives, in the attack. The footage showed the ship was sinking. A western official backed the Ukrainian account, saying it was “highly likely that uncrewed surface vessels were responsible for the strike on the Ivanovets.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s Investigative Committee, the main state criminal investigation agency, said Thursday it deduced that the Russian Il-76 military transport plane that crashed near the border with Ukraine on Jan. 24 was downed using the U.S.-made Patriot air defence system, which western allies have supplied to Kyiv.
Russian officials claimed there were 74 people on board, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war, six crew members and three Russian servicemen. All were reported killed. The two missiles were fired by the Ukrainian military from near the village of Lyptsi in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, it said.
The committee said 116 fragments of two MIM-104A missiles that were fired from the Patriot system were found near the crash site in the Belgorod region. It produced no physical evidence for its claims.