Recent reports on social media have included videos showing drone strikes on Russian patrol boats and ground units in the Black Sea and waterways in the Kherson region.
In June, the Ukrainian Navy published a video on Telegram of an attack on a Russian landing craft on Kherson’s west coast, which commentators also attributed to the TB-2.
Then in August, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) released a video of a drone-launched missile strike on a Russian assault boat, near the port of Zalizny in the Kherson region, claiming to have destroyed the vessel, killing its five-man crew.
On Wednesday the Ukrainian Navy published yet another video which it said was launched on a Black Sea Fleet high-speed boat which it said was attempting to land Russian airborne troops unit to the Tendrivska Kosa, a narrow stretch of Russian-occupied land on Kherson’s Black Sea coast where Moscow’s forces have previously sited relay stations to extend the range of its drones making it a frequent target for the AFU.
While the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in the attacks have not been confirmed by the Ukrainian authorities, military commentators say the onboard drone images included icons and markings characteristic of the Turkish Bayraktar TB-2 UAV.
The TB-2 first made an appearance on the Ukrainian battlefield in October 2021 when it destroyed a D-30 122 mm howitzer being operated by separatist forces in Donbas. In the opening weeks of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, the drones were hugely effective in the interdiction of Russian armored columns advancing on Kyiv in both strike and reconnaissance roles. At the time, Moscow’s forces had no effective way of countering the Bayraktars.
However, Russian forces began to deploy electronic warfare and air defense assets that highlighted the vulnerability of the large, slow-moving TB-2s, particularly in their strike configuration. According to the Oryx open-source intelligence (OSINT) organization, at least 26 of the UAVs had been lost by March 2022.
This caused the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to almost completely withdraw its Bayraktars from the attack role, using them for reconnaissance and target identification, a situation that has persisted until the last few months.
This reappearance of the TB-2 in the attack role indicates the success of the almost constant Ukrainian attacks on Russian air defenses in Crimea and Kherson, according to both pro-Kyiv and pro-Kremlin commentators.
Ukraine’s Spravdi Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security published a summary of attacks on Russian air defense assets in March, which it says has created a much safer air defense environment for the Bayraktars. The Russian milblogger Military Informant endorsed that view in a Wednesday post on Telegram saying:
“Previously, the Bayraktars… [did] not risk getting close to strike, as they would inevitably become victims of air defense. Now, apparently due to regular strikes by Ukrainian drones… on air defense and radar on the coast of Kherson region and Crimea, Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2s have received a corridor for freer operation.”
Analysts quoted by The War Zone military issues website say the reappearance of the Bayraktar as a strike weapon does not necessarily signal wider deployment of the UAVs, but more likely is another example of Ukraine’s ability to rapidly exploit changes in the tactical situation on the battlefield, particularly if “significant cracks” have appeared within the Russian military machine.