Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 4:40:56 GMT
On the night of 16–17 September 2022, a group of sea drones – the first of its kind in the global history of war – approached Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.
Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) Vasyl Maliuk and Vice Admiral Oleksii Neizhpapa, Commander of the Ukrainian Navy, watched closely, monitoring the drones’ progress from a secure bunker. They were joined by Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and a Brigadier General of the SSU’s counterintelligence wing with the alias Hunter, the man behind Ukraine’s sea drone program.
The team’s mission: to send the drones into the heart of the Russian Black Sea fleet – the Bay of Sevastopol – in hope of striking Russian missile-carrying ships.
"Those were the early models of those munitions. Some of them sank in the sea or spontaneously detonated. At the time the design was still rather flawed," Hunter told Ukrainska Pravda.
Still, five drones – each carrying 108 kilograms of TNT – had managed to make it, and were rapidly approaching Sevastopol.
"We were 70 kilometres away from the Admiral Makarov frigate. Everyone was tense, anticipating our attack. And then boom – we had our communications cut off. Elon Musk disabled Starlink satellites we were using to control the drones," a member of the team overseeing the operation told Ukrainska Pravda.
The target that the Ukrainian sea drones sought was only an hour – at most an hour and a half – away, but Musk’s decision threatened to undermine the entire operation.
"Fedorov tried to talk him out of it, but Musk wouldn’t listen. Other people were also trying to figure things out via their own channels of communication, but US [officials] said Musk’s firm was private, so they couldn’t put pressure on it," one of the people present in the bunker that night recalled.
The team tried to turn the drones around and bring them back to the base, but only two of them made it. The Admiral Makarov remained in Sevastopol, intact. But not for long.
"The two drones that made it back gathered invaluable intelligence on communications, navigation, the ship’s structure, and things like that. Ukraine’s Security Service and Navy set up a whole lab to study this information, taking it all into account, and enabling us to go back and attack Sevastopol within a month," a source told Ukrainska Pravda.
Ukraine’s first foray into the new, high-tech phase of the war for the Black Sea may not have been a success, but a year on, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talked about his country’s two historic wins in 2023 during an end-of-year press conference: the start of accession negotiations with the European Union, and winning the battle for the Black Sea.
"Sometimes people fail to grasp and assess the importance of this operation. But everyone who knows about it in detail, both in Ukraine and internationally, speaks of it very highly. We have put an end to Russia’s dominance in Ukraine’s Black Sea," Zelenskyy explained.
Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) Vasyl Maliuk and Vice Admiral Oleksii Neizhpapa, Commander of the Ukrainian Navy, watched closely, monitoring the drones’ progress from a secure bunker. They were joined by Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and a Brigadier General of the SSU’s counterintelligence wing with the alias Hunter, the man behind Ukraine’s sea drone program.
The team’s mission: to send the drones into the heart of the Russian Black Sea fleet – the Bay of Sevastopol – in hope of striking Russian missile-carrying ships.
"Those were the early models of those munitions. Some of them sank in the sea or spontaneously detonated. At the time the design was still rather flawed," Hunter told Ukrainska Pravda.
Still, five drones – each carrying 108 kilograms of TNT – had managed to make it, and were rapidly approaching Sevastopol.
"We were 70 kilometres away from the Admiral Makarov frigate. Everyone was tense, anticipating our attack. And then boom – we had our communications cut off. Elon Musk disabled Starlink satellites we were using to control the drones," a member of the team overseeing the operation told Ukrainska Pravda.
The target that the Ukrainian sea drones sought was only an hour – at most an hour and a half – away, but Musk’s decision threatened to undermine the entire operation.
"Fedorov tried to talk him out of it, but Musk wouldn’t listen. Other people were also trying to figure things out via their own channels of communication, but US [officials] said Musk’s firm was private, so they couldn’t put pressure on it," one of the people present in the bunker that night recalled.
The team tried to turn the drones around and bring them back to the base, but only two of them made it. The Admiral Makarov remained in Sevastopol, intact. But not for long.
"The two drones that made it back gathered invaluable intelligence on communications, navigation, the ship’s structure, and things like that. Ukraine’s Security Service and Navy set up a whole lab to study this information, taking it all into account, and enabling us to go back and attack Sevastopol within a month," a source told Ukrainska Pravda.
Ukraine’s first foray into the new, high-tech phase of the war for the Black Sea may not have been a success, but a year on, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talked about his country’s two historic wins in 2023 during an end-of-year press conference: the start of accession negotiations with the European Union, and winning the battle for the Black Sea.
"Sometimes people fail to grasp and assess the importance of this operation. But everyone who knows about it in detail, both in Ukraine and internationally, speaks of it very highly. We have put an end to Russia’s dominance in Ukraine’s Black Sea," Zelenskyy explained.