The Ukrainian Navy struck and disabled a Russian boat near Kherson, dealing another blow to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The nighttime thermal footage, depicting explosions onboard a Russian vessel with its crew scrambling for safety, was shared by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on X on Tuesday.
The video consists of multiple clips shot from different angles – presumably via drones – depicting the moment of impact and the subsequent fires and smoke that engulfed the boat.
“Another Russian Black Sea Fleet boat with enemy troops onboard – destroyed while moving along the western coast of Kherson region,” the update says.
The Ukrainian Navy added that the attack took place overnight between June 23 and June 24 in its Tuesday morning Telegram update.
An earlier update identified the vessel as a “Black Sea Fleet landing craft,” though its exact type remains unclear.
As of June 25, Ukraine said it has in total sunk 28 Russian warships and boats – plus one submarine –since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Each Russian vessel sunk is considered an achievement for Ukraine since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea had severely hamstrung the Ukrainian Navy, depriving it of large warships and submarines.
But in recent years, the Ukrainian Navy has turned towards unmanned systems to compensate for the lack of major vessels with some success, dealing extensive damage to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – which included the sinking of its flagship, the “Moskva” in April 2022
A Kyiv Post analysis in 2024 highlighted Russia’s naval losses in the Black Sea, which prompted Russia to relocate major vessels away from occupied Crimea and limited Russian naval strikes to long-range missile launches only.