Ukrainian Magura V5 marine drones made sure that the Russian patrol ship Sergey Kotov would not be covering the Kerch Strait anymore. The ship was attacked at night from March 4th to 5th and is a complete loss. It was reported that the 94-metre long patrol ship was attacked by at least 5 marine drones and despite 40 minutes of struggle will not be fighting anymore.
Russian Black Sea patrol ship Sergey Kotov was commissioned in 2022. Image credit: Cleo00054 via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Dmytro Pletenchuk, a representative of the Ukrainian Navy, says that the Sergey Kotov was meant to defend Russian facilities in the Kerch Strait. The same strait that houses the illegal Crimean bridge, built to reinforce the Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula. Ukraine has long warned the Russians not to send their warships there. “We warned last year not to sail here,” a navy spokesman said.
Pletenchukalso also noted that such ships like the Sergey Kotov can perform various tasks. From the protection of various objects, straits or a certain territory to the control of civilian shipping. It is said that in 2022 Sergey Kotov took part in the attack on Snake Island together with the cruiser Moskva. Both of these ships are gone now.
Sergey Kotov was 94 metres long. It was launched in January 2021 and was commissioned in July 2022. It was a very young ship in a young class of patrol ships. Its complement is up to 80 people, but it is unknown how many people were onboard during the last attack against this ship.
Sergey Kotov was attacked for the first time in September 2023, but suffered only minor damage. Now it is completely destroyed. Its estimated value was 65 million USD. Ukrainian intelligence claims that a Kamov Ka-29 helicopter was destroyed as well.
How Ukraine’s Magura V5 marine drones saw the attack against Sergey Kotov:
⚡🔥 Video of the destruction of the Russian patrol ship “Sergey Kotov”! pic.twitter.com/C7XnZqycNV
— MAKS 23 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) March 5, 2024
Sergey Kotov had a large weapons suite onboard. It probably used its 76.2 mm AK-176MA automatic dual-purpose gun to engage the marine drones that came for it, but it also had a Tor-M2KM air defence missile system, which was meant to protect it and surrounding objects from cruise missiles, drones and aircraft. Sergey Kotov also had two MTPU machineguns, anti-saboteur automatic grenade launchers, torpedoes and cruise missiles. It is a huge loss to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which has already bled a lot.
Ukraine not-so-secretly hopes that the destruction of the Sergey Kotov will open up the path towards the illegal Crimean bridge. Oleksandr Musienko, head of Ukraine’s Military Law Research Center, said that Ukraine must accept the fact that Germany will not provide the Taurus cruise missiles, which would be very useful in destroying the Crimean bridge. However, if Ukraine can destroy the Russian Black Sea Fleet, it can also reach the Crimean bridge.
Written by Povilas M.