Soldiers of the Group 13 special forces unit of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine destroyed the guided-missile corvette Ivanovets, part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, on the night of 31 January-1 February 2024.

Source: Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU)

Quote: "The operation was made possible with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the United24 platform.

The enemy vessel was on the roadstead of Lake Donuzlav in temporarily occupied Crimea.

As a result of a number of direct strikes to the hull, the Russian vessel sustained critical damage causing immobilisation – it heaved aft and sank."

    • lurch (he/him)
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      185 months ago

      the small boats are explosive drones. they can take a few hits.

        • @[email protected]
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          45 months ago

          Pretty sure they are being downgraded to ‘Regional Power’, and if they continue to prosecute this war, they might find the level below that.

          • FuglyDuck
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            45 months ago

            Look, you may not like it, but they have the largest submarine fleet in the world!

            (and it’s so capable, those ships boats stay down there indefinitely. Generational crews!)

          • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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            25 months ago

            Russia isn’t a superpower. China arguable. Both lack the significant powerhouse alliances that a superpower needs to really direct global affairs and diplomacy. There is only one, arguably.

        • Buelldozer
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          5 months ago

          Not to take anything away from Ukraine but IIRC the tactic of using small watercraft loaded with explosives against much larger naval ships was pioneered by Al-Qaeda. They damn near sank the USS Cole back in October of 2000 while it was refueling in Aden Harbor.

              • @[email protected]
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                35 months ago

                Wouldn’t be surprised of the Phoenicians (or their contemporaries) pulled some sort of stunt like this.

              • NoIWontPickaName
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                15 months ago

                I had thousands at first but then I googled the invention of gun powder and it came up for 850 A.D. which seems wrong, but I don’t have a degree in ancient Chinese history.

                It felt wrong to use fire boats since we are talking about explosions.

                Although as an American I feel like I should know more about the invention of anything having to do with guns

                • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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                  5 months ago

                  Interesting. Flint tools that make a spark when struck with an iron-bearing surface date back to at least 1,600 BC

                  I know sometimes when I plunge a tool into the ground it can spark a bit just digging a post hole or something. I imagine that from about 15,000 BC to 1,600 BC people spent a lot of time banging rocks together and sometimes made sparks, and some of them must have tried to refine the process. Frankly it would have surprised me if by 850 AD we had not figured a way to bang very refined rocks together in such a way as to make large explosions. The sparks must have seemed like magic.

          • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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            15 months ago

            This was described as a swarm attack. I didn’t catch how many vessels were involved. Seems like a shitload. And the ship saw them coming too. You can see gunfire throughout the video. Seems like at least 4 or 5 hits, wonder how many more got shot to pieces. Seems like there was nothing the ship could do, simply overwhelmed.

    • Buelldozer
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      5 months ago

      the video makes it look like they took down that corvette with an inflatable motorboat.

      That’s basically what’s happening. I don’t know if they used inflatable motorboats specifically, Ukraine has used JetSki’s previously, but what they’re doing is packing shaped explosive charges onto small watercraft, running the craft up against the hull of the ship and then blowing it up. If you rewatch the video you can see that multiple attacking craft were used and at least two of them targeted and damaged the same area of the hull!

      Those little boats pack a MEAN punch and as you can see in the video they are damn hard to hit with projectile weapons. The Russian crew was obviously shooting like crazy but they weren’t able to stop the attack.

      Al-Qaeda famously did this to the American Naval Vessel USS Cole back in 2000. The USS Cole didn’t sink thanks to the efforts of its bad ass damage control team but the ship was seriously damaged and it took a year to rebuild her.

      • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】
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        5 months ago

        Looked like three hits broadside, that second hit may have shown twice. Appears that the ship’s magazine blew up, if I know anything about naval explosions, which I do not.

        • @[email protected]
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          35 months ago

          You’re not far off. The second drone seems to have triggered a secondary explosion. It could have been the main magazine, or it could have been one of the missiles in the tubes on the side. Either way, Russian ordinance cooked off onboard.

  • @[email protected]
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    105 months ago

    As outdated and poorly maintained as they may be; that is one less weapon in an evil mans arsenal. Great! Hopefully the henchmen had a bad day.

    • @[email protected]
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      85 months ago

      According to the article search and rescue was “unsuccessful” so we may assume all hands were lost. However bad, it was their last. I know these aren’t necessarily very fine people or anything, but I mourn what might have been if they didn’t go to the service of a futile and costly invasion.

  • @[email protected]
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    55 months ago

    By the time the third drone hits the ship it was already badly injured. Incredible job, Ukraine. Keep it up!

  • lurch (he/him)
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    15 months ago

    Truly epic.

    I’m not a fan of YouTube, but it’s worth in this case. Just a shot of Leo di Caprio slipping away was missing.