The one-tonne drone that could hit Putin’s navy fleet from 620 miles away
Sea Baby drones are lethal - and loaded with explosives.
Vladimir Putin will have to face Ukraine’s modernised Sea Baby drones, which have been keeping his warships at bay.
An invention of Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the uncrewed surface vehicles have ‘radically’ changed Russia’s presence in the Black Sea over the past two years.
Lethal – and loaded with explosives – the remote-controlled vessels have sunk at least five Russian boats and damaged others.
Putin’s £50 million warship ‘Sergey Kotov’, which sank in March, is just one of the victims.
Ukraine had been working to further strengthen the drones, and they will now be able to carry almost one tonne of explosives and strike targets 620 miles away.
The confirmation from the Security Service of Ukraine comes as Ukraine continues to repeat its intention to blow up a road and rail link from Russia’s mainland to occupied Crimea.
SBU spokesperson Artem Dekhtiarenko said: ‘This means that the SBU can reach a target almost anywhere in the Black Sea.’
It presents a further danger to Putin’s Black Sea Fleet, which has had to curtail its operations due to the threat from Ukrainian drones.
A third of the fleet has been disabled since the start of the full-scale invasion, and attacks have ramped up in recent months.
‘These are already new generations of drones, on the improvement of which the team of SBU specialists worked and continues to work together with other members of the Security and Defence Forces,’ Dekhtiarenkoadded.
The SBU currently deploys two types of sea drones – Sea Baby and Mamai.
‘The future lies with technological approaches in war,’ SBU head Vasyl Malyuk said earlier.
‘In the ranks of the service, we have raised unique specialists in naval drones in order to further improve and scale up the work of clearing the Black Sea from the enemy.’
In July last year, the drones – loaded with 850 kg of explosives – caused structural damage to the Crimean Bridge.
And in October 2022, a bomb hidden in a truck exploded on the bridge, causing major damage.
Russia carried out major repairs to continue using the crossing, but Ukraine has repeatedly vowed to destroy it.
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