Ukrainian Drones Hit Harbor Tug and Two Helicopters in Crimea

 

The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) has attacked a Russian tug and two helicopters in Crimea, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014 and is a frequent target of Ukrainian strikes. 

On August 30, GUR first-person view drones hit the Russian airbase in Gvardiyske, not far from Simferopol, damaging two Mi-8 transport helicopters. Each is valued at about $20-30 million, GUR said. 

An FPV drone attack also hit a Russian tug in Sevastopol's bay, illustrating why the Black Sea Fleet has evacuated its more valuable warships to the relative safety of Novorossiysk, far to the east. The tug was likely the assist tug BUK-2190, a RAL RAscal-2000 design licensed and built at Pella Shipyard in Leningrad in 2018.

GUR said that the drone strike on the tug was carried out by military divers, "for whose training significant financial and time resources are spent." 

Diver-enabled attacks are widely suspected in a series of attacks on tankers linked to Russia since the start of the year; Ukrainian divers (whether employed by Kyiv or acting on their own) are also suspected of conducting the 2022 attack on the Nord Stream pipeline complex.