David Kirichenko
Ukraine’s naval drones have sunk warships, hit oil terminals, and even downed Russian helicopters and fighter jets over the Black Sea.
Ukraine has turned to drones and asymmetrical warfare to counter Russia’s superior firepower, but nowhere has this strategy been more effective than in the Black Sea. Over the course of the war, Ukraine neutralized a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, forcing much of the navy to retreat from occupied Crimea. Today, Ukrainian naval drones or unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are effectively enforcing a blockade on Russian ports.
Yet the contest is far from over. Moscow is gradually adapting, learning from its mistakes, and investing in new defenses. Ukraine is still ahead, but signs indicate that the Kremlin is taking the issue of unmanned systems and their impact on naval warfare more seriously.
Ukraine Builds a High-Tech Navy
Following Russia’s first invasion in 2014, Ukraine lost most of its navy, and by the time of the 2022 invasion, Kyiv even abandoned its only remaining warship to prevent it from falling into Russian hands. Well before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine recognized that achieving military parity with Russia would be impossible.
“As a result, the navy had to be built according to an asymmetric principle,” said Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center and former Ministry of Defense adviser, in an interview published by the US Naval Institute. With Russia holding far greater resources and manpower, Kyiv turned to the ingenuity of its people, leveraging innovation wherever possible.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief, wrote, “Ukraine’s advantage lies in its people, who have not only stopped the enemy, but have already transformed the country into a center of innovation on the battlefield.” In practice, that innovation meant substituting the warships it lacked with drones.
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