Ukrainian Navy drone commander claims Vladimir Putin’s entire Black Sea fleet could be destroyed.
Known only by the call sign 13, he fulfilled his life’s goal and sank a Russian warship on November 10 when two of them exploded in the waters near Choronomorske, Crimea.
He is currently stationed at a secret base on the Dnipro River, where he has a fleet of drones that have enough explosives to wipe out the entire Russian Black Sea Navy.
Callsign13 now has its sights set on “sinking something bigger,” he told The Times.
We talk about how drones managed to evade a hail of machine gun bullets to wipe out a Shark and Serna-class landing craft, with the Russians unable to stop them even though they knew they were coming.
A Ukrainian drone boat washes up near the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. Ukraine used the drones to destroy two Russian warships last month
A landing craft carrying Russian marines was destroyed by a Ukrainian army drone on the northwest coast of the Black Sea in September
“My goal in life was to sink a Russian ship, and we sank two of them at once,” he said. “And as far as I know, no one anywhere has ever done that.”
One of the successes of the conflict is Ukraine’s ability to push back the Russian fleet and open corridors for its economy and global supplies.
Lord Cameron noted this when he visited Odessa last month.
He said: “If you look at the bigger picture, what has happened recently is that the Ukrainians have pushed the Russian navy right back across the Black Sea, they have opened a shipping route to take their exports out, and their economy is growing.”
“And of course they knock on the door of both NATO and the EU and receive a very warm response.”
“These are great achievements.” And our task today is to build on these achievements and figure out what other concrete steps we can take to help Ukrainians in their fight and show that Russian aggression should never be worth it.”
But Call Sign 13 has a different dream, to disable Putin’s navy.
“My dream is to sink more Russian ships, much bigger ones,” he said.
“So many that they couldn’t sail at all.” Are we capable of wiping out the entire Black Sea Fleet? Yes. And that’s what we’re working on.”
Just two days ago, Ukraine destroyed one of Putin’s newly built warships in a daring missile attack on Russian-annexed Crimea.
The crashed ship was described as a newly built Askold missile ship, one of the most modern in Vladimir Putin’s navy.
The footage shows the attack on the Butoma shipyard in Kerch, near Putin’s major bridge connecting the annexed peninsula with Russia
According to Russian and Ukrainian media reports, Askold, Russia’s newest missile carrier (pictured), was hit in a missile attack in Crimea on November 4, 2023
Moscow admitted losing a ship in an attack by 13 cruise missiles, but did not say which ship.
The footage shows the attack on the Butoma shipyard in Kerch, near Putin’s major bridge connecting the annexed peninsula with Russia.
Since launching its counteroffensive against Moscow forces this summer, Kiev has stepped up attacks on the peninsula to suppress Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
According to state media, the Russian Defense Ministry said: “On November 4, the Ukrainian army fired 15 cruise missiles at the BE Butoma (Zaliv) shipyard in the city of Kerch.”
“Air defense systems shot down 13 of the cruise missiles.” A ship at the factory was damaged by a hit from an enemy cruise missile.
The ministry did not say how badly the ship was damaged or which ship was attacked.
Debris from the fired missiles also fell on a nearby dock, but no one was injured, said Russia-appointed Crimean governor Sergei Aksyonov.
The nearby Crimean bridge to mainland Russia was briefly closed on Saturday for unknown reasons.
Ukraine announced the attack on Saturday and confirmed details on Sunday.
“On the evening of November 4, the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out successful attacks on the maritime and port infrastructure of the Zaliv Shipyard in the temporarily occupied Kerch,” it said.
Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, in a Telegram post referred to the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet sunk by Ukrainian missiles on April 14, 2022, saying: “I hope another ship followed the Moskva River.”
At that moment, the Russian shipbuilding factory “Zaliv” in Kerch, Crimea, was hit
Moscow admitted losing a ship in an attack by 13 cruise missiles
The Askold is a Project 22800 Karakurt warship, three of which are being built at the Russian-occupied shipyard
Ukrainian sources later stated that the ship destroyed was the Kalibr missile with the 197-foot-long Askold, which was about to enter service, or one of two others of the same Karakurt class.
Some reports say it was hit three times by the French version of the Storm Shadow missile.
“The ship did not even take part in sailing or combat missions – it went through some final test work so that it could then go to sea and fight against our state,” said Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ignat.
The Askold is a Project 22800 Karakurt warship, three of which are being built at the Russian-occupied shipyard.
Some reports say the Askold, like many Russian warships in the Black Sea, was relocated to Novorossiysk, further from Ukraine’s missile range.
The other two being built in Kerch are the Amur and the Cyclone and, like the Askold, should enter service this year.