Vladimir Putin's naval operations in the Black Sea have been dealt another blow after Ukrainian forces struck and destroyed a range of vessels in and around Crimea.
In the early hours of May 30, Ukraine's Group 13, a special taskforce affiliated to Ukrainian intelligence services, blew up a pair of Russian speedboats in waters off the occupied peninsula - with Ukrainian military sources quick to share dramatic footage of the attacks online.
Videos posted to social media by Ukraine's Ministry of Defence showed what appeared to be mounted camera footage from naval drones in a skirmish with Russian helicopters in the Black Sea.
Putin's choppers can be seen raining fire on the water down below, with the drones' cameras picking up explosions on the sea's surface as they speed across the ocean.
More footage, shot on "night-vision" cameras, shows naval drones ramming into and destroying Russian vessels
X
More footage, shot on "night-vision" cameras, shows two views - one first-person and the other some metres away - of the naval drones ramming into and destroying what the Ukrainian MoD said were "KS-701 Tunets (Tuna) type boats".
And elsewhere, Ukraine's military said it had damaged two ferries in Russian-held Crimea, halting Russia's operations between the peninsula and the Russian mainland.
Nikolai Lukashenko, a Russia-appointed official in Crimea, confirmed Ukrainian reports, saying debris from downed Ukrainian missiles had damaged the vessels in the port of Kerch and operations on the ferry line had been suspended.
Ukraine's General Staff, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, said the assault in Kerch was carried out by Western-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS).
MORE AS UKRAINE FIGHTS BACK:
Putin's choppers can be seen raining fire on the water down below in Ukrainian footage
X
The statement read: "As a result of the strike, two ferries carrying out rail and vehicular transport suffered significant damage.
"One of them ran aground, blocking the operations of the entire Kerch ferry crossing."
As a result of the operation, it said, "the military logistics of the occupiers on the peninsula have been significantly disrupted".
Though it isn't all plain Black Sea sailing for Ukraine; just a day prior to the covert attacks on Russian vessels, Russia's defence ministry said that planes from its Black Sea Fleet had destroyed three Ukrainian Crimea-bound sea drones.
Zelensky's forces have relied on the drones throughout the war
X/Reuters
Then, yesterday, Russian air defences downed eight ATACMS missiles over the Sea of Azov and intercepted eight drones over the Black Sea near Crimea on Thursday, Russia's state-run Tass news agency cited the country's defence ministry as saying.
The body of water has been a key battleground for Ukraine as the country's embattled forces have sought to disrupt Russian naval operations since the invasion, with Western sources estimating Ukraine has destroyed around a fifth of Russia’s Black Sea fleet since February 2022.
Ukraine has been happy to show off successful drone attacks on Russian ships - earlier this year, Ukrainian official social media accounts declared Ivanovets, a small warship, had received "direct hits to the hull" while in service in Lake Donuzlav, a saltwater bay on the western side of the Crimean peninsula, sinking it.
Zelensky's forces have relied on the drones throughout the war, even claiming they had been used in attacks on the Kerch Bridge in 2022 and 2023.
