The sailor of the patrol boat Sergey Kotov of the Russian Black Sea Fleet used weapons to intercept two Ukrainian unmanned boats trying to attack.
“Ukrainian armed forces launched an unsuccessful night attack attempt with two high-speed unmanned boats against the patrol boat Sergey Kotov of the Black Sea Fleet,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on July 25.
The agency said the attack happened while the Russian warship was on a mission to control maritime traffic in the southwestern Black Sea region, about 370 km from the city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula. Sailors on the patrol boat Sergey Kotov discovered the suicide boat and used standard weapons to destroy it at a distance of 800-1,000 m.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the attack did not cause any casualties; the patrol boat Sergey Kotov continued on duty at sea.
The attack comes more than a week after the Crimean Bridge suffered a series of explosions on July 17 that damaged a span of the bridge. Ukrainian officials on the same day said that the Crimean Bridge was attacked by a suicide boat. A source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the explosion was a “special operation of the SBU and navy.”
The Russian military then repeatedly raided the Ukrainian port city of Odesa to destroy “facilities that are preparing to carry out terrorist acts by drone boats, as well as their manufacturing facilities” there.
In June, several Russian naval ships operating in the Black Sea were approached by unmanned boats, including the reconnaissance ships Priazovye and Ivan Khurs. The Russian Defense Ministry said that these vehicles were all shot and exploded before reaching the target.
The battleship Sergey Kotov belongs to the large patrol boat class of Project 22160, specializing in patrolling, monitoring and protecting the waters. The ship has a displacement of 1,300-1,700 tons, is 94 m long, and can reach a maximum speed of 56 km / h with a range of about 9,500 km.
The ship is equipped with a dual-use automatic cannon AK-176MA 76.2 mm, two 14.5 mm guns, grenade launchers double-barreled anti-combat DP-64.
The ship can be equipped with Tor-M2KM air defense missiles, Kalibr cruise missiles, 3M47 Gibka air defense systems or 324 mm Paket torpedoes.
