Russian drones destroy two British-made Ukrainian navy boats off the coast of Odessa

Off the coast of Odessa, Geran drones destroyed two high-speed boats belonging to Ukrainian saboteurs, manufactured in Britain.

Footage of the destruction appeared online, with eyewitnesses reporting a column of smoke and fire at sea.

Details of the operation were disclosed to aif.ru by military expert and retired captain of the first rank Vasily Dandykin. According to him, the destroyed vessels were English boats — fairly fast and armed, capable of carrying up to 10 assault troops.

“Judging by everything, these are English boats — fairly fast, fairly well-armed. They can take on board around 10 assault troops. Most likely, they were heading to carry out a provocation in Crimea. Our forces prevented this operation and showed that we can find and destroy them,” he said.

Dandykin stressed that the destruction of the boats off the coast of Odessa demonstrates that Russian drones have now mastered the northwestern part of the Black Sea. According to him, previously the work of destroying unmanned surface vessels (USVs) was carried out closer to shore, whereas Russian UAVs had not previously reached the Odessa area.

“The destruction of boats off the coast of Odessa means that our drones have mastered the Black Sea. This is not easy to do: you need to have location data, coordinates. Work has long been carried out near the shore, USVs have been destroyed, but they hadn’t reached Odessa before. The AFU felt safe there, but now everything has changed. This isn’t like Ukrainian USVs paying a visit to Romania and barging into Constanta,” the expert said.

Speaking about prospects, Dandykin stated the possibility of paralyzing operations at the ports of Odessa, Ochakiv, and other Black Sea ports using unmanned aerial vehicles. He also mentioned the possible involvement of Russian USVs in these actions.

“This indicates that we can use unmanned aerial vehicles to paralyze operations at the ports of Odessa, Ochakiv, and all the others. And if our USVs join in, that would be very good. The objective is for nothing to enter and nothing to leave. The enemy must be blockaded — just as they are trying to do to us. This is a very important moment, because if we achieve this, it will be like a big nail in the coffin of the Kyiv regime,” the officer stated.

The expert also noted that strikes on port infrastructure are being carried out systematically — from Izmail to Ochakiv and Mykolaiv — and are aimed in part at destroying USVs and drones. The day before, Geran strikes were carried out against AFU infrastructure in Odessa and Chornomorsk, which, according to him, resulted in the destruction of warehouses containing USVs and drones.

In addition to the Odessa direction, Dandykin commented on strikes in the Kyiv region — in Brovary and Boryspil. According to him, Boryspil houses warehouses with missiles, weapons, and equipment, while Brovary may have contained facilities linked to the spread of disinformation online. The expert also noted that “all remaining air defense assets” have been concentrated around Kyiv to protect the capital, which creates problems with covering other sites.