The Times shows a video of a warehouse with Magura V5 maritime drones at a secret base
At a secret base on the Dnipro River, Ukraine’s new fleet of Magura V5 maritime drones is “parked” on both sides of a pier, filled with the potential to destroy the entire Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service, the GUR, told The Times about three types of drones. A fleet commander with the call sign 13 said he had been punching holes in Russia’s most advanced warships, sinking his last two targets on November 10 off Chornomorsk in still-occupied Crimea.
He described how the drones snuck into the port at dawn, avoiding anti-submarine nets to find the right angle of attack. The Russians saw them and opened fire with machine guns at the low, narrow silhouettes.
But the bullets missed the target because the drones accelerated. Despite further fire from Russian artillery, two drones hit the Akula and Serna-class amphibious assault ship, and the third exploded in the dock. They sank, taking an armored personnel carrier with them to the bottom of the Black Sea.
They knew we were coming. But there was nothing they could do. The joy was incredible. It was my life’s goal to sink a Russian ship, and we sank two at once. And as far as I know, no one has ever done this before. Now we have a new goal – to sink something bigger.
The commander’s campaign began in May, when the Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs was forced to limp back to port from the Bosphorus after being hit by mysterious explosions. In July, and then in September, the same fate befell the modern Russian patrol ship Sergei Kotov. The second time, it was damaged by drones that accidentally hit the ship when it was maneuvering to avoid being pursued by enemy aircraft.
