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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine's Uncrewed Surface Vessels Are Now Launching Bomber Drones To Attack Crimea
Ukraine is now using bomber drones launched from unmanned surface vessels (USVs aka drone boats) to attack targets in Crimea. This includes a high-value Russian radar installation on peninsula. The strikes mark the latest iteration of Ukraine's drone boat campaign that's kept Russia's Black Sea Fleet (BSF) at bay and damaged enemy military facilities in occupied Crimea as well as the Kerch Bridge. 'On the night of July 1 to 2, 2025, Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces carried out a brilliant, high-precision special operation!,' the Ukrainian MoD claimed on X, adding that it destroyed three critical components of the prized Nebo-M radar system. The 67-second video posted by the MoD shows the bomber drones launching from the bow of the sea drones and dropping several munitions on the Russian radars. Ukrainian heavy drones launched from the marine drones bombard Russian radar systems in Crimea! Strikes were carried out on the components of the Russian "Nebo-M" radar system:•RLM-M 55Zh6M "Nebo-M"•RLM-D 55Zh6M "Nebo-M"•Radar Command Post (KU RLS) 55Zh6M "Nebo-M" — Special Kherson Cat (@bayraktar_1love) July 3, 2025 The use of bomber drones launched from sea drones offers some important advantages. In March, we told you about how the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) used first-person view (FPV) drones launched from drone boats against Russian radars and surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. Using bomber drones gives Ukrainian operators the ability to strike more than one target per drone with possibly heavier warheads than FPV drones can carry. They can also travel farther while maintaining their connection, as they don't have to dive to the ground to hit their targets. As we have reported in the past, Ukraine also has bomber drones that can launch guided munitions with a heavier punch. This development was not lost on Russian military observers. 'The enemy shows footage of a drone strike with drops on our positions on the western coast,' the popular Russian Two Majors Telegram channel noted. 'A single (sea drone) snuck up, and drones were launched from it. A new element was the use of drones with drop systems; thus the enemy achieved several strikes from each UAV.' One of the bomber drones launched by the sea drone was reportedly later recovered by the Russians. The drone boat was later destroyed by Russian aviation, Two Majors claimed without providing visual proof. Still, they used this incident to seek greater resources for Russian troops in Crimea. 'They know how to fight this floating junk, controlled through Elon Musk's Starlink, in Crimea and practice it,' Two Majors posited. 'You just need to give resources to effective units ready for unconventional solutions.' The communications architecture for such a concept would include a satellite communications system on the boat, which they already carry and often multiple types at once, and a direct line-of-sight radio link from the boat to the drone. This would allow operators to control the drone in real time from anywhere, with the boat working as a platform to launch the drone and also as a relay and control node for it. Ukraine's drone boat campaign began with kamikaze variants, laden with explosives and set out on one-way missions to hit Russian targets. Ukraine has since made a series of advancements, turning these vessels into reusable anti-aircraft platforms, first-person view (FPV) drone launchers and even gunboats. As we previously noted, Ukraine's early drone boat attacks on the BSF were a 'wakeup call' marking 'a new point in unmanned warfare.' The lessons of its ongoing campaign have been noted by the U.S. Navy, Cmdr. Michael Linn said. In early May, we were the first to report that Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) used its new Magura V7 USV, armed with a pair of AIM-9X Sidewinder infrared-guided air-to-air missiles, to shoot down a pair of Russian Su-30 Flanker fighters flying over the Black Sea. At the time, all indications were that this was the legacy AIM-9L/M model, which seemed strange — more on that in a moment. But now we know AIM-9Xs were actually used. The Su-30 downing followed GUR's claimed downing of a Russian Mi-8 Hip helicopter over the Black Sea in December using an adapted R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missile fired from a Magura V5 USV, an earlier variant of the Magura V7. You can see the Magura V7 engagement with the Su-30 in the following video. World first: On May 2, 2025, the @DI_Ukraine special operations unit, in coordination with the Security Service of Ukraine and Defence Forces of Ukraine, eliminated a russian Su-30 fighter jet in the Black Sea. — Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (@DI_Ukraine) May 3, 2025 Beyond how the weapons were delivered, this latest attack is significant because of what was targeted. The MoD said it destroyed one RLM-M radar, one RLM-D radar and a radar control station. As we have previously reported, the potential loss of elements of the Nebo-M radar system could have significant impacts on the ability of Russia's forces to detect, track, and attempt to intercept various aerial threats, including ballistic missiles. The Nebo-M first entered Russian service in 2017. It is a multi-purpose long-range radar system. The manufacturer says it can detect targets out to a maximum range of nearly 373 miles (600 kilometers) and claims it has at least some capability to spot and track ballistic threats and even stealthy aircraft. From our earlier story: 'The RLM-M is a large, road-mobile 3D VHF target acquisition radar that is carried on an 8×8 truck, and reportedly has a unit cost of $100 million. The RLM-D, which is also carried on an 8×8 truck, is a similarly large L-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) air surveillance radar.' Both can be set up to feed targeting data, via the central command post vehicle, to various air defense systems, including S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems. The location of these radars, on the western-most tip of Crimea, is also significant. Targeted as part of Ukraine's ongoing campaign to blind Russia, taking them out potentially opens additional holes in Russia's air defense overlay of the peninsula and the northwestern Black Sea. This could go a long way to ensuring the survivability of standoff strike weapons, like Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG, and other attacks, such as those by long-range kamikaze drones. Given that, Ukraine has frequently hit Russian radars and SAM systems here. It is unclear at the moment how many sea drones Ukraine is using to launch bomber drones. If the results of the attack earlier this week in Crimea are any indication, there is an incentive to boost this capability. It gives Ukraine another asymmetric weapon system to amplify its combat power. Contact the author: howard@
Korea Herald
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Russia advances to east-central Ukrainian region
Russia said Sunday that its forces had advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk amid a public row between Moscow and Kyiv over peace negotiations and the return of thousands of bodies of soldiers who fell in the war. Despite talk of peace, the war is stepping up with Russian forces grabbing more territory in Ukraine and Kyiv unfurling high-profile drone and sabotage attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet and, according to Moscow, on railways. Russia, which controls a little under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has taken more than 190 square kilometers of the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open-source maps. Now, according to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine's Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region. "The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region," Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces said on Telegram. "Our soldiers are courageously and professionally holding their section of the front, disrupting the occupier's plans. This work does not stop for a minute." Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, said the Dnipropetrovsk offensive showed that if Ukraine did not want to accept the reality of Russia's territorial gains in peace talks, then Moscow's forces would advance further. The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than 3 million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region from several directions. A Ukrainian military spokesperson, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said that Russian forces were trying to "build a bridgehead for an attack" on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army. Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and the return of the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers. Ukraine denied those claims. On Sunday, Russia said it was moving bodies towards the border and television showed refrigerated trucks containing the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers on the road in the Bryansk region. Ukraine, officials said, was playing politics with the dead. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to press on with prisoner exchanges. "The Russian side is therefore, like always, even in these matters, is trying to play some kind of dirty political and information game," he said in his nightly video address. "We believe that the exchanges will continue and will do everything for this. If the Russians do not stand by agreements even in humanitarian matters, it casts great doubt on all international efforts — including those by the United States in terms of talks and diplomacy." Zelenskyy said he had reviewed commanders' reports about areas hit by heavy fighting, including near Pokrovsk, targeted by Moscow for months. He said the situation was "far from easy, but everything depends on the resilience of our units." US President Donald Trump, who says he wants an end to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, on Thursday likened it to a fight between young children and indicated that he might have to simply let the conflict play out. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he did not think Ukraine's leaders wanted peace, after accusing them of ordering a bombing in Bryansk, western Russia, that killed seven people and injured 115 a day before talks in Turkey. Ukraine, which has not commented on the attack on a Bryansk bridge, has similarly accused Moscow of not seriously seeking peace, citing Russian resistance to an immediate ceasefire. Russia is demanding international recognition of Crimea, a peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory. Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from all of them. Russia controlled 113,273 square kilometers, or 18.8 percent, of Ukrainian territory as of June 7, according to the Deep State map. That is an area bigger than the U.S. state of Virginia. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99 percent of the Luhansk region, over 70 percent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast. Putin told Trump on Wednesday that he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's bomber fleet and the bombings of the railways. Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians in his video message to be particularly attentive to air raid warnings in the coming days. The US believes that Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its attacks has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multipronged strike, US officials told Reuters. (Reuters)
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine denies Russian troop presence in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast amid offensive, describes situation as 'tense'
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the Ukrainian military's denial of the presence of Russian troops in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Russian forces continue their efforts to break into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces reported on June 8, saying that the situation around the 31st Separate Brigade's positions remains "tense." "The enemy has not abandoned its plans to enter Dnipropetrovsk Oblast," the Southern Defense Forces wrote on Telegram. "Our soldiers are bravely and professionally holding their section of the front, thwarting the occupier's plans." The comment follows the Russian Defense Ministry's June 8 claim that its forces had entered Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Despite the claims, Major Andrii Kovalev, a spokesperson for Ukraine's General Staff denied Russian troop presence in the region. "The information is not true. Fighting is ongoing in Donetsk Oblast. The enemy did not enter Dnipropetrovsk Oblast," Kovalev told Ukrainska Pravda. In a separate statement to CNN, Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for for Ukraine's Khortytsia group of forces said that "the Russians are constantly spreading false information that they have entered the Dnipropetrovsk region from the Pokrovsk and Novopavlivka directions, but (in neither place) is this information true.' The 31st Brigade is deployed in the Novopavlivka direction, where Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts converge. Since 2014, Russian aggression has heavily impacted Donetsk Oblast, while Dnipropetrovsk Oblast has remained free from direct incursions. The denials from Ukraine's militaary come amid continuing Russian offensives in eastern and northern Ukraine, along with escalating diplomatic efforts that have yet to yield a ceasefire. President Volodymyr Zelensky's Deputy Chief of Staff Pavlo Palisa said on June 6 that Russia aims to occupy all Ukrainian territory east of the Dnipro River and advance toward Odesa and Mykolaiv in a broader plan to sever Ukraine's access to the Black Sea, amid a renewed summer offensive. On May 21, Ukrainian officials rejected similar claims that Russian troops had reached Dnipropetrovsk Oblast's administrative boundary. Serhii Lysak, head of the regional military administration, called the reports "fake," citing doctored photos allegedly showing Russian soldiers in the area. The Ukrainian monitoring project DeepState analyzed one such image and determined it had been taken in Troitske, a village in Donetsk Oblast. As a precaution, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast began mandatory evacuations of children and families from four front-line villages in late April — Kolona Mezhova, Novopidhorodne, Raipole, and Sukhareva Balka — located just 5 to 15 kilometers from Russian positions. Despite the lack of verified ground incursions, Dnipropetrovsk has endured frequent Russian missile, drone, and aerial attacks since the full-scale invasion began. The ongoing Russian advance occurs as peace efforts remain stalled, and U.S.-brokered negotiations have failed to achieve a ceasefire. Read also: US expects Russia's retaliation for Operation Spiderweb to continue soon We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
CNA
08-06-2025
- Politics
- CNA
Russia advances to east-central Ukrainian region amid row over dead soldiers
MOSCOW/KYIV: Russia said on Sunday (Jun 8) its forces had advanced to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk amid a public row between Moscow and Kyiv over peace negotiations and the return of thousands of bodies of soldiers who fell in the war. Amid talk of peace, the war is stepping up with Russian forces grabbing more territory in Ukraine and Kyiv unfurling high-profile drone and sabotage attacks on Russia's nuclear-capable bomber fleet and, according to Moscow, on railways. Russia, which controls a little under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, has taken more than 190 sq km of the Sumy region of eastern Ukraine in less than a month, according to pro-Ukrainian open-source maps. Now, according to the Russian defence ministry, units of the 90th Tank Division of the Central Grouping of Russian forces have reached the western frontier of Ukraine's Donetsk region and are attacking the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region. "The enemy does not abandon its intentions to enter the Dnipropetrovsk region," Ukraine's Southern Defence Forces said on Telegram. "Our soldiers are courageously and professionally holding their section of the front, disrupting the occupier's plans. This work does not stop for a minute." Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said the Dnipropetrovsk offensive showed that if Ukraine did not want to accept the reality of Russia's territorial gains in peace talks then Moscow's forces would advance further. The pro-Ukrainian Deep State map showed Russian forces very close to the Dnipropetrovsk region, which had a population of more than 3 million before the war, and advancing on the city of Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region from several directions. A Ukrainian military spokesman, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said that Russian forces were trying to "build a bridgehead for an attack" on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for the Ukrainian army. Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of delaying the swap of prisoners of war and return of the bodies of 12,000 dead soldiers, though Ukraine denied those claims. Russia said on Sunday it was moving bodies towards the border and television showed refrigerated trucks containing the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers on the road in the Bryansk region. Ukraine accused Russia of playing propaganda games and said that the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers was scheduled for next week. Russia said Ukraine was playing politics with the dead. US President Donald Trump, who says he wants an end to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, on Thursday likened it to a fight between young children and indicated that he might have to simply let the conflict play out. ACCUSATIONS OVER WILLINGNESS FOR PEACE Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he did not think Ukraine's leaders wanted peace, after accusing them of ordering a bombing in Bryansk, western Russia, that killed seven people and injured 115 a day before talks in Turkey. Ukraine, which has not commented on the attack on a Bryansk bridge, has similarly accused Moscow of not seriously seeking peace, citing as evidence Russian resistance to an immediate ceasefire. Russia is demanding international recognition of Crimea, a peninsula annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, and four other regions of Ukraine that Moscow has claimed as its own territory. Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from all of them. Russia controlled 113,273 sq km, or 18.8 per cent, of Ukrainian territory as of Jun 7, according to the Deep State map. That is an area bigger than the US state of Virginia. The areas under Russian control include Crimea, more than 99 per cent of the Luhansk region, over 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, all in the east or southeast, and fragments of the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the northeast. Putin told Trump on Wednesday that he would have to respond to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia's bomber fleet and the bombings of the railways. The United States believes that Putin's threatened retaliation against Ukraine over its attacks has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, US officials told Reuters. Russia also hit the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday evening and overnight with drones, missiles and guided bombs, killing at least four people and injuring more than 60, including a baby, local officials said on Saturday.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia intensifies assaults near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast border, Ukraine's military says
Russian forces are ramping up their offensive in southern Ukraine in an attempt to breach the administrative border of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces spokesperson, Vladyslav Voloshyn, said on May 13. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a major industrial and logistical hub, remains untouched by ground incursions but is under growing threat. Voloshyn said Russian troops continue to use artillery, kamikaze drones, guided aerial bombs, and unguided missiles to attack Ukrainian positions. "The number of these assault operations is quite high," he said, citing 24 combat engagements in the Novopavlivka direction alone. Novopavlivka lies in central-eastern Ukraine, roughly 130 kilometers (about 80 miles) southeast of Dnipro, near the tri-border area of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Voloshyn described it as the "most mobile area" on the southern front, where four Russian regiments have concentrated assault units. "They are trying to break through toward the administrative border of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts," he said, adding that fighting involves small assault groups and constant shelling. The Russian assaults prompted local authorities on April 28 to begin mandatory evacuations of families with children from four frontline villages: Kolona Mezhova, Novopidhorodne, Raipole, and Sukhareva Balka. These settlements lie just 5–15 kilometers from Russian positions. Although Russian troops have not yet entered Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the region has suffered regular missile, drone, and airstrike attacks that have killed and wounded civilians and damaged critical infrastructure. Read also: As Ukraine, Russia peace talks loom, all eyes are on Putin's next move We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
