Ukraine's Defense Intelligence unit known as Group 13 has effectively neutralized Russia's Black Sea naval advantage using unmanned boats that cost a fraction of their targets, PBS NewsHour reported after gaining rare access to the secretive drone operators.
The unit operates two main weapons: the Magura 5, a kamikaze boat, and the Magura 7, outfitted with American missiles. Both emerged from necessity—when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Ukraine lost almost its entire navy.
How Ukraine's naval drones changed the Black Sea balance
"Little by little, we pushed the most active and most dangerous part of Russia's Black Sea fleet off the western part of the Black Sea," the anonymous Group 13 commander told PBS. "Right now, Russians do not keep anything that is valuable or important in Crimea. Everything is in Novorossiysk."
That shift keeps western Black Sea waters open for Ukrainian grain exports and forces Russia's ships to dock in their own territory, hundreds of miles east of the occupied peninsula.
Even in Novorossiysk, Russian vessels aren't safe. From summer 2023 through spring 2024, Ukrainian naval drones struck Russian ships repeatedly, including the patrol ship Sergey Kotov—worth $65 million, according to Ukraine.
The unit hunts in packs. During the Kotov mission, Group 13's commander explained, drones worked "in flocks" while the ship tried hiding among commercial vessels near the Crimean bridge.
From warships to shadow fleet oil tankers: Ukraine expands drone targets
Ukraine's drone strategy has shifted toward Russia's economic lifelines. Naval drones now strike the so-called shadow fleet—oil tankers Russia uses to evade Western sanctions and finance the war.
Long-range aerial drones complement the naval campaign. The Beaver, a 200-pound kamikaze drone capable of traveling 600 miles, targets fuel bases, logistics hubs, and command headquarters deep inside Russia.
"With our deep strikes, we're targeting Russian fuel bases, logistics hubs, command headquarters, and this forces them to move all of this away from the front line, and thus their logistics take more time," a Defense Intelligence commander told PBS.
At one point this year, Ukrainian long-range drones took down more than 10 percent of Russia's refinery capacity. Last week, drones struck a Russian tanker in the Mediterranean Sea—1,200 miles from Ukraine's border.
The asymmetric math of Ukraine's drone warfare
Ukraine's drone campaign illustrates a cost equation reshaping modern warfare: relatively cheap weapons destroying expensive hardware. The Sergey Kotov sinking exemplifies this—a swarm of unmanned boats took out a $65 million warship.
But Russia maintains its own drone advantage. Moscow launched an average of 726 drones per week recently, mostly targeting Ukrainian energy and infrastructure. The asymmetry runs both directions.
"We're fighting for our survival," the Group 13 commander said. "We have no choice but to fight."
