War in Ukraine: kyiv claims destruction of small Russian corvette in Black Sea

The Russian Black Sea Fleet is still under heavy pressure from the Ukrainian army, which, due to a lack of ships, uses its naval drones, aerial drones and missiles to harass opposing naval forces.

The latest example is the destruction claimed by Kiev of the small Russian corvette

-class missile ship that

is both modest and old and was apparently sunk on January 31 by a naval drone.

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The "13th group" of the General Directorate of Ukrainian Military Intelligence - the GUR, under the leadership of General Kyrylo Budanov - published a video of the attack which allegedly took place while the corvette was en route to Lake Donuzlav in the north of the Crimean peninsula.

We see the naval drone approaching the small ship - whose characteristic superstructure with missile launchers on the sides can be recognized - from the starboard side.

What follows is a loud explosion, the appearance of a large hole in the hull and then, finally, the glimpse of the bow of the boat which is sinking definitively under the water.

The video is not continuous and has several cuts.

At this stage, the destruction of the

cannot therefore be confirmed with certainty.

If confirmed, and although the video is particularly impressive, this attack would not constitute a decisive loss for the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

This “small missile ship”, according to the old Soviet classification, was put into service in 1988 and remains a boat of very low tonnage (400 to 500 tonnes, compared with the approximately 12,000 tonnes of the

cruiser sunk in April 2022) equipped with largely obsolete weapons and sensors, in any case incomparably less modern than those equipping modern Russian corvettes and frigates.

In particular, the

is equipped with old Moskit anti-ship missiles and not with the universal missile system of the Kalibr family, the ground strike version of which allows the Russian Navy to strike the entire Ukrainian territory thanks to its range of more than 2000 kilometers.

Read alsoWar in Ukraine: naval drones, nightmare for the Russian fleet in the Black Sea

The Russian Black Sea Fleet has eight ships and seven submarines equipped with these Kalibr missiles.

To date, one of these submarines has been seriously damaged - the

in June 2024, but the Russians have announced its return to service this year - and the Ukrainians have otherwise managed to neutralize the

-class corvette

, which was completing its trials before its admission to active service.

The attrition of these “Kalibr” carriers, as well as that of the logistics fleet, remains the main challenge for the Russian Navy in the Black Sea.

The possible destruction of the

does not directly contribute to this, but nevertheless serves as a reminder that the Ukrainian naval strategy of harassing the Russian fleet remains for the moment a real military success for Kiev, all the more so when we remember that the Ukraine no longer really has a real navy.