CNN
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Ukraine has claimed it shot down a Russian Su-30 fighter jet in the Black Sea using a seaborne drone for the first time.
“This is the first time in the world that a combat aircraft has been destroyed by a marine drone,” the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said in a statement on Saturday, adding it “burst into flames in the air and eventually fell into the sea.”
Ukraine’s military intelligence said one of its units destroyed the fighter jet on Friday with a Ukrainian Magura drone near the port of Novorossiysk – a key port city for Russia where Ukraine claims there are remnants of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
CNN could not independently verify Ukraine’s claims.
Russia’s defense ministry has not commented on the incident, although the claim was backed up by a Russian military blogger.
“The Ukrainians brought more than three dozen sea-drones… to the Novorossiysk area… After [our] jet was hit, the crew ended up in the water, surrounded by enemy sea-drones,” Fighterbomber said on Telegram Saturday.
Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed in December last year it destroyed two Russian helicopters “for the first time in the world” using the seaborne Magura V5 missile drone created by Ukraine’s military and engineers.
Kyiv has increasingly turned to drones to level the playing field with Russia, which boasts superior manpower and resources. Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 – and following further losses after Russia’s 2022 invasion – Ukraine no longer has a functioning navy in the Black Sea.
Drones have proved effective against some of the toughest ships of Moscow’s Black Sea fleet. They are controlled from afar via a Starlink connection and can be pre-programmed for the long journeys across the Black Sea.
In February last year, Ukraine said it sank the Ivanovets, a Russian guided-missile ship in the Black Sea. Its most notable strike was on the Moskva in April 2022, which was a huge morale boost for Kyiv in the early weeks of the war.
After the attack on the Ivanovets, CNN interviewed Ukraine’s secretive sea drone unit behind the strike at a location near the Ukrainian coastal city of Odesa. One of the drone pilots behind the attack told CNN that 10 Magura drones were used in the attack, six of which hit and ultimately sunk the Russian warship.
One of Ukraine’s drone pilots told CNN the drones are quite difficult to see in open sea, making it hard for Russians to target.
CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, Joseph Ataman, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Victoria Butenko, Christian Edwards and Alex Stambaugh contributed to this report.