Ukraine Plans to 'Liberate Black Sea' With Naval Drones

Ukraine's naval drones will play a key role in the planned liberation of the Black Sea, Kyiv's top politician overseeing unmanned weapon development said following high-profile attacks on Russian shipping in the region.

Mykhailo Fedorov told Newsweek the war has made his country a world leader in unmanned weapon technology, both in the air and at sea. He oversees a sprawling portfolio as Ukraine's vice prime minister for innovation, education, science and technology development, as well as serving as minister of digital transformation.

Speaking last Friday amid a spate of naval drone attacks on Russian shipping and maritime targets in the Black Sea, Fedorov said Russia's invasion of the country has supercharged and shaped the development of Kyiv's aquatic kamikaze drones.

"A naval drone is a unique and classified Ukrainian development," the vice prime minister said.

"Every naval drone is equipped with an autopilot system; video subsystems, including night vision; special communications protected from enemy's electronic warfare; backup communication modules; and a warhead, as well as a ground-based autonomous control station, transportation and storage systems, and a data center," Fedorov said.

"Such a naval fleet serves for conducting special operations, and for sure it has its role in the liberation of the temporarily occupied Black Sea coastal area," he added.

Ukraine has managed to contest Russia's presence in the Black Sea despite having no significant conventional naval strength. Unsurprisingly, Russia's Black Sea Fleet dominated the region from the first hours of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Since then, its ships have regularly fired cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities and periodically enforced a blockade of Ukrainian shipping.

But Kyiv's forces have managed to land several blows against Moscow's fleet, most notably the sinking of the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva in April 2022 using shore-based anti-ship missiles.

Ukrainian troops managed to make Snake Island—a small but strategic outpost close to the Romanian coast—untenable for the Russian troops who seized it in the opening stages of the invasion, forcing them to abandon it in June 2022.

Naval and aerial drone attacks—some successful and others not—on Russian naval vessels and facilities in Crimea have become a common occurrence. These attacks, according to the British Defense Ministry, forced Moscow to relocate its Kilo-class submarines to the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

Kyiv almost claimed another sinking in October 2022 when naval drones attacked and damaged the Admiral Makarov frigate, which had inherited the Moskva's flagship status.

The past month has seen three high-profile operations involving naval drones. First, in mid-July two Ukrainian unmanned aquatic vessels detonated under the Kerch Strait Bridge, reportedly inflicting serious damage on the structure. The attack prompted Moscow to finally withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, having already hamstrung the grain export agreement.

This month, Ukrainian naval drones hit the Russian Ropucha-class Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship anchored in Novorossiysk, and soon afterward they struck the oil tanker Sig off the coast of Crimea. Both were seriously damaged and had to be rescued by tugboats. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email to request comment.

A recent CNN report on Ukraine's naval drone program found that the latest versions of the weapon weigh up to 2,200 pounds and can carry an explosive payload of up to 661 pounds. The vessels have a maximum range of around 500 miles and top speed of 50 mph.

Much of the funding for Ukraine's recent drone development has come through the United24 platform, launched by President Volodymyr Zelensky in May 2022. The program has supported the "Army of Drones" campaign, through which Kyiv has secured tens of thousands of drones and trained 10,000 drone pilots.

Update 8/7/2023, 10:40 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to include information on Ukraine's Army of Drones campaign.