Attempts by the Ukrainian military to us sea drones for attacks on Russian navy and civilian ships in the Black Sea had been defeated, claimed the Russian defence ministry on Tuesday August 1st.
Ukraine immediately denied that it had attacked any civilian ships, but did not confirm or deny the claim that it had attacked Russia’s navy.
“During the night the armed forces of Ukraine made an unsuccessful attempt to attack the Sergei Kotov and Vasiliy Bykov patrol ships of the Black Sea fleet with three unmanned sea boats,” said that Russian defence ministry. It said that the two ships had been controlling shipping 340km southwest of Sevastopol and that they would continue to perform their duties. Later, in its daily briefing, the ministry said navy ships had destroyed three more sea drones that were targeting unnamed civilian vessels.
“During the night, the Kyiv regime attempted a terrorist attack with three semi-submersible unmanned boats on Russian civilian transport vessels heading towards the Bosphorus Strait in the southwestern part of the Black Sea,” the ministry said.
Ukrainian presidential official Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters that “undoubtedly, such statements by Russian officials are fictitious and do not contain even a shred of truth. Ukraine has not attacked, is not attacking and will not attack civilian vessels, nor any other civilian objects.”