Moment when Russian sailors on Putin’s doomed £55m warship take charge of kamikaze drones in Ukraine before it is sunk in a fireball
DRAMATIC footage captured a fierce naval battle as terror-stricken Russian sailors tried to stave off a brutal Ukrainian kamikaze drone attack.
A GoPro video was taken on board the doomed £170 million Caesar Kunikov landing ship that exploded in a fireball and sank as a Valentine’s gift for President Putin.
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Seeing the extraordinary images Russian Sailors desperately try to save the 110 meter long warship, which was lurking nearby annexed Crimea – of the attack by pumping the water with lead.
There is absolute chaos on deck Putin’s forces see the drones flying towards them in the Black Sea and struggle to fend off the attack.
But the swarm of jet ski-powered USVs was completely undeterred in their attack and the video climaxed as an explosion sank and destroyed the colossal vessel.
The warship was lost on February 14, but the footage has only now become available, leaked to the popular Russian Telegram channel FighterBomber.
The video surfaced just two days after yet another Russian warship, the modern patrol ship Sergey Kotov, was sunk off Crimea in a separate drone strike at sea by Kiev.
The £51 million vessel, only in service since 2022, was blown to pieces in an early morning attack and it was all captured in PoV footage released with a grin by Ukraine.
As a result, Putin has lost his dominance in the western Black Sea, over which Moscow used to have complete dominance.
It was released in an apparent attempt to show the bravery of the sailors in their battle to destroy the unmanned drones hunting the ship.
However, the clip highlights how Ukraine changed naval warfare forever, as a large Russian battleship was helpless against five to ten high-speed MAGURA V5 drones piloted by operators perhaps hundreds of miles away.
The small but deadly weapons are Kiev’s latest type of marine drone that is helping to blow Putin’s Black Sea fleet out of the sea and were used again this week in the sinking of the Kotov.
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There is no confirmed death toll, but unconfirmed reports suggested that at least 17 of the total 87 Russian crew were killed when the Caesar Kunikov met her end.
An anonymous crew member – seeking to dispute Russian claims that the sailors had been “cowards” and failed to fulfill their duty – said his GoPro footage showed they “saw the attack of [marine drones] with all available forces and resources” in the fierce sea battle.
The source said there were ten drones, but Ukraine has only admitted five.
“The 5th [drone] hit the ship in the stern, immobilizing the ship, after which 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th naval drones struck the ship on the port side amidships and closer to the stern, with the aim of capsizing the ship.
“The 9th Navy drone partially penetrated the hole made by the previous drone and nearly exploded inside.
The crew member added: “The ship could no longer be saved – the list was growing rapidly.”
This claim was confirmed by the fiery images at the time.
“From the time the enemy naval drones were discovered and the start of the battle, until the ship was completely submerged, just over 40 minutes had passed.
“The crew abandoned ship using life rafts, without loss of personnel, and evacuated all classified documentation and some of the secret equipment including weapons.”
Ukrainian accounts suggest there were Russian losses.
“The last 10th Marine drone conducted observation [recording] the dying ship until it sank, after which the 10th drone tried to attack the tugboat accompanying the BDK Caesar Kunikov, but was destroyed by the group on board.
If that were true, the footage of the Putin warship’s final moments would have been sent to Kiev.
The pre-war channel FighterBomber – which commented on Caesar Kunikov’s last battle – responded to the vilification of the crew.
“Currently the crew members are being made into cowards and villains….”[Yet] there was fighting there, according to the best traditions of our grandfathers.
“I personally saw the clear work of the team right up to the last minute. I think the crew at least deserves to not be made into villains.
The embarrassing sinking led to the immediate dismissal of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet Admiral Viktor Sokolov – despite claims he was killed in a Shadow-Storm missile attack over the summer.
Despite the fact that there are no longer any large naval ships of its own, Kiev is estimated to have succeeded in this sinking nearly a third of Putin’s once feared Black Sea Fleet (25 warships and one submarine).
What remains of it has withdrawn and is expected to move to a naval base in the Moscow-backed Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia.
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