drone boat
A video widely circulated on social media shows the moment the remote weapon appeared to detonate
Russia attacked a key bridge in southern Ukraine, deploying a drone boat for the first time since the war began.

Western analysts warned that Russian drone boats now posed a "major new threat" to Ukrainian supply lines and the control of the Black Sea.

"Russia was not known to have these types of drones or to think in these terms," said H.I. Sutton, an independent naval analyst. "We may see another shift in the war in the Black Sea. This time in Russia's favour."


Comment: Russia has hypersonic weapons which the West has yet to match in its own armories, and so this drone boat is hardly a surprising 'major threat'. That said, indeed it does appear that we're looking at a new stage in the conflict, where the 'terms' with which Russia is operating have ramped up, but, as Putin said, Russia has barely gotten started.


Video of the attack showed a boat speeding towards the low-slung Zatoka railway and road drawbridge near Odessa late on Friday evening. As it passes under the bridge the boat explodes, debris flies into the water and smoke billows into the night sky.

Neither the Russian nor Ukrainian militaries have commented, although Russian opposition media confirmed the geolocation of the video.


Ukraine has attacked the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea and Novorossiysk, further along the Russian Black Sea coast, several times with drone boats but this is the first time that Russia has used one.


Comment: Bearing in mind that most of Ukraine's military operations are receiving varying, but significant, assistance from Western agencies.


The first use of a drone boat by Russian forces in the war gave rise to celebrations from supporters of Vladimir Putin.

"A year after the start of the Special Operation we have started to use unmanned maritime drones," said Poddubniy, a popular Russian military blogger. "I'm happy that the people who promised this type of equipment have come through."

The bridge at Zatoka is only a few hundred metres long but it is strategically important because it crosses the mouth of the Dniester Estuary, which flows into the Black Sea. It is also the most direct and the only Ukraine-controlled route linking Odessa with Romania and the Danube Delta, a shipping gateway into central Europe.

Russian missiles struck the bridge in April, forcing freight traffic heading to and from Odessa into a detour through Moldova and possibly through Transnistria, a pro-Kremlin Moldovan breakaway region.

100 missiles fired in new offensive

Further to the east, reports said that an intensified level of fighting continued along the front lines.

The renewed fighting comes as Russia is suspected to have launched a fresh general offensive.

Russia's ministry of defence also confirmed on Saturday that it had fired more than 100 missiles at Ukraine on Friday in one of the heaviest attacks of the war.

And Russian media sources said that Russian forces had captured the village of Dvurechnoye in the Kharkiv region, but Ukrainian sources have disputed this.