Ukraine releases images of the destruction of the modern Russian patrol ship 'Sergei Kotov'

The Russian Black Sea fleet is experiencing critical moments. Today the loss of its third ship this year has been confirmed.

Images of the destruction of the Russian ship 'Caesar Kunikov' by Ukraine
Images of the sinking of the Russian corvette 'Ivanovets' R-334 due to a Ukrainian attack

Last month, Ukraine destroyed two ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet: the corvette "Ivanovets" (February 1) and the landing ship "Caesar Kunikov" (February 14). The two sinkings were the work of Group 13 of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR), in collaboration with the Ukrainian Navy, using kamikaze naval drones.

This morning, the GUR reported the sinking of a new Russian ship, the patrol ship "Sergei Kotov", of type Project 22160, on the night of March 4 to 5. Once again, the destruction of this ship has been a joint operation between GUR Group 13 and the Ukrainian Navy, with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. The GUR statement noted that The Russian ship was attacked in the territorial waters of Ukraine, near the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea. This morning, the GUR released the video of the attack:

In the video you can see three or four naval drones attacking the Russian patrol boat from the port side. Each impact of one of the Ukrainian naval drones is followed by a powerful explosion. At point 1:40 of the video you can see the hull of the patrol boat already destroyed in the area located under the flight deck, in the aft section. Although no images of the sinking are seen on this occasion, it is unlikely that a ship of this size would have survived such a harsh attack. According to the GUR, the cost of the sunken ship is about 65 million dollars.

The novelty of this attack is that the GUR has indicated the weapons used: Magura V5 naval drones. These drones have a length of 5.5 meters, a gross weight of 1,000 kg and a range of 400 kg. They can carry an explosive charge of up to 200 kg. These naval drones were developed two years ago and were used for the first time in November 2023. This weaponry is the same that Ukraine had used in the sinking of the corbera "Ivanovets" and the landing ship "Caesar Kunikov" in February.

The "Sergei Kotov" is the most modern of the Russian ships destroyed by Ukraine during the invasion. It was built at the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch, in Russian-occupied Crimea, and was launched on 29 January 2021. She entered service on July 30, 2022. The "Sergei Kotov" was the fourth in a series of six ships of the Project 22160 type. The first ships of this class are the "Vasili Bykov" (launched in 2017), the "Dmitri Rogachev" (2018) and the "Pavel Derzhavin" (2019). The four already active served in the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In addition, there are two other ships of this type under construction: the "Victor the Great" and the "Nikolai Sipyagin".

According to stated by the Russian Ministry of Defense on the day of entry into service of the "Sergei Kotov", ships of this class would have a displacement of 1,700 tons and a crew of 80 people, and could reach a speed of up to 30 knots, with a range of 6,000 nautical miles. These ships are 94 meters long and are heavily armed, with a 76.2 mm automatic main gun in the bow, a Tor-M2KM surface-to-air missile launcher, 2 14-inch MTPU machine guns .5 mm, DP-64 and DP-65 automatic grenade launchers and 324 mm torpedo launchers. They would also have the capacity to launch Kalibr-NK cruise missiles.

Interestingly, on January 2, 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy called a competition to shoot down naval drones. "The tactical isolation group of one of the large units of the Black Sea Fleet became the best in firing small-caliber artillery and large-caliber machine guns against unmanned enemy ships," noted the statement, and added:

"This tactical group included the patrol vessels "Sergei Kotov" and "Vasili Bykov". During the fighting in the Black Sea, the crews of both ships successfully repelled several attacks from enemy naval robotic weapons, destroying more of 10 unmanned ships".

In September 2023, Ukrainian intelligence reported that it had hit this ship through an attack with naval drones. However, on that occasion the ship was only damaged. The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the attack but omitted any reference to the damage suffered by that ship. At the time of publishing these lines, Russia has not yet acknowledged or denied the destruction of the "Sergei Kotov". Until now, and according to information verified by the independent website Oryxspioenkop.com, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 16 Russian ships have been destroyed and damaged beyond repair in attacks by Ukrainian forces.