The reconnaissance ship Simferopol has been taken out by a sea drone in the Danube Delta, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said

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Russian forces have sunk the Ukrainian reconnaissance ship Simferopol with a naval drone strike, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow.

The vessel was struck in the delta of the River Danube, part of which is located in Ukraine’s Odessa Region, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

“As a result of the attack, the Ukrainian ship sank,” the Defense Ministry said.

This was the first successful use of a sea drone to take out a Ukrainian Navy vessel, TASS reported later in the day, citing a UAV expert.

Kiev has confirmed to the media that the vessel was hit.

The attack left one crew member dead and several others wounded, the Kiev Independent wrote on Thursday, citing a Ukrainian Navy spokesperson.

“Efforts to address the aftermath of the attack are ongoing. The majority of the crew are safe, and the search for several missing sailors continues,” the outlet cited the spokesperson as saying.

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The Simferopol is a Laguna-class, medium-sized ship designed for radio, electronic, radar, and optical reconnaissance. It was launched in 2019, and joined the Ukrainian Navy two years later. 

According to WarGonzo, a Telegram channel, the vessel was the largest ship that Kiev had launched since the Western-backed coup in 2014. 

 

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The Simferopol “can be considered the personification of the ‘mighty’ naval forces of Ukraine,” the independent channel wrote on Thursday.

Moscow in recent months has moved to accelerate the production of naval drones, as well as other unmanned systems that have increasingly dominated the Ukraine conflict.

Russia also struck a major drone facility in Kiev with two missile strikes overnight, Ukrainian politician Igor Zinkevich claimed on Thursday. The site was “training personnel” and preparing to produce Turkish Bayraktar drones, he said. “Most of the facilities were almost ready, the main staff had completed training.”