Yuri Lapaiev
The September 24 Ukrainian naval drone attack on oil terminals in Novorossiysk and Tuapse marked the first time that Ukraine has used maritime drones to attack Russian oil industry facilities.
Ukraine’s development of advanced maritime drones like the Magura and SeaBaby have demonstrated high effectiveness, sinking ships, striking aircraft, and even damaging infrastructure like the Kerch Bridge.
With proven combat success, Ukraine plans controlled exports of naval drones, while Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) advance their own programs, intensifying competition in unmanned maritime warfare technologies.
On September 24, Ukrainian drones attacked the Russian cities of Novorossiysk and Tuapse. Cyber Boroshno, a Ukrainian open-source intelligence (OSINT) team, analyzed video footage and found that the drone struck oil loading piers within the port of Tuapse (Cyber Boroshno, September 24). The attack damaged infrastructure for the Transneft oil terminal and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal near Novorossiysk. Both terminals paused operations following the attack, but allegedly resumed loading tankers the next day (Bloomberg; United24 Media, September 25). The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR) was behind the attack, according to an unnamed source from the agency (Radio Svoboda; Kyiv Independent, September 25).
The September 24 attack is the first time Ukraine has used maritime drones, also known as unmanned surface vessels (USVs), in addition to traditional unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack Russian oil industry facilities. Several USVs broke through Russian defenses and successfully reached their targets, demonstrating the growing role of maritime drones in Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets. These drones have already proven their effectiveness, having destroyed or damaged approximately 15 ships from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. This constitutes almost a third of the total Russian Black Sea Fleet, according to Roman Pogorily, OSINT researcher and co-founder of the DeepState team (Ukrinform, May 30).
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