It was during the night of Friday that the Russian naval base in the city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea was attacked by Ukrainian drones, when the ship in question was also said to have been hit. Johan Huovinen says that it is a landing ship that usually has its home port in Murmansk.
– It came, together with five other similar landing craft, to the Black Sea in February 2022 just before the war began. It is quite large, 112 meters long, he says.
According to Russian media reports, however, since the Kerch Bridge was damaged, the ship has been used to transport trucks and armored vehicles.
– Then it had to move in together with the sister ship Kaliningrad to facilitate transport between the Russian mainland and the city of Kerch, says Huovinen.
Why attack a ship like this?
– You can probably guess that it is to continue cutting off logistics connections to Crimea, that is probably the main reason. It can also indirectly have an impact on tourism, of course, as it is said to have transported civilian cars and trucks for a certain period of time.
“An impressive effort”
How powerful the sea drones are likely depends on how far they have traveled. However, it is a fairly modest distance of an estimated 100 miles between the Ukrainian coast and Novorossiysk, says Johan Huovinen.
– But it needs a lot of propellant to be able to travel from the west of Crimea and get to Novorossiysk, and that probably limits the explosive charge inside it. There is information that they would have an explosive charge of up to 150-200 kilos. It sounds relatively much, but it is unclear.
– It is an achievement to get through this entire distance with this type of weapon. It is an impressive effort by the Ukrainian side, he says.
Not the first time they have been used
The sea drone, developed by Ukraine, is based on a jet ski that has been equipped with a hardware program that allows it to be steered towards a specific target. Johan Huovinen also believes that it probably also has some form of GPS control that allows it to drive according to the indicated course – in this case towards the port of Novorossiysk.
– There must be some type of link system that allows you to carry out a targeted attack like this, he says.
However, it is not the first time that Ukraine uses sea drones.
– We have seen it against the Crimean Bridge before and we have also seen it against the port of Sevastopol, and in another attack against a Russian ship that was not successful. This is something that the Ukrainians developed and are now having success with. It is also a cheap way for the Ukrainian side to knock out a ship of this class.