Ukrainian UAVs attacked Russian warships more than 1,000 km away

“Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the General Directorate of Military Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) for the first time attacked an enemy warship in the Caspian Sea,” a source at GUR said on November 6. The target in the raid was the Tatarstan and Dagestan guard ships anchored in the city of Kaspiysk, the Russian Republic of Dagestan.

Video filmed by people from the shore of the military port shows a UAV, apparently an Aeroprakt A-22 model, flying low and then crashing into the boat docking area and exploding, creating a large fire.

Sergey Melikov, leader of the Republic of Dagestan, confirmed on the same day that the city of Kaspiysk, more than 1,000 km from the front line in Ukraine, was attacked by UAVs. Mr. Melikov said Russian air defense downed a UAV, and UAV debris injured a 16-year-old boy. However, Russian officials did not specify how many UAVs participated in the raid and have not announced the related damage.

According to the pro-Ukrainian Astra channel, the Kaspiysk military port is where the Russian Caspian Fleet is stationed. “This squadron repeatedly launched missiles into Ukraine. The squadron’s 77th Marine Regiment participated in battles in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia,” Astra said.

X account Capt_Navy of a former Russian naval officer commented that the video showed that the UAV “seemed to hit the small corvette Stupinets that had been eliminated”. “This warship will be withdrawn from the squadron and decommissioned in 2023,” this person said.

Howard Altman, editor of TWZ, believed that because the published video was of low quality, it was difficult to determine which ships were directly hit or damaged.

Russia and Ukraine have recently repeatedly attacked targets on each other’s territory, including military bases and energy infrastructure. Ukraine announced to launch raids on Russian territory in response to similar enemy activities.