UKRAINE’S security services have long been plotting to destroy Putin’s £3billion Crimean bridge – and its newest marine drones could help make it happen.
Kyiv has unveiled a fleet of modernised kamikaze Sea Baby drones that can carry one ton of explosives and hit targets more than 620 miles away.
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Ukraine’s spy agency, the SBU, stated that their new fleet of specially-developed and homegrown unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are ready to become Putin’s latest headache.
SBU spokesman Artem Dekhtiarenko said that the lethal semi-submersible naval drones “can reach a target almost anywhere in the Black Sea.”
The announcement comes after repeated promises from Ukraine that they will blow up the Kerch Bridge – the only land link from Russia to the occupied peninsula.
Recently military officials revealed Ukraine intends to destroy it “in the first half of 2024” – giving them roughly 100 days to pull of the mighty feat.
For Putin, the 12-mile Kerch bridge – which he hailed a “miracle” upon its completion – is a visible symbol of his sham triumph in “returning” Crimea to its homeland.
For Ukraine, it’s target number one – a grotesque display of 10 years of Russian occupation.
Destroying it would be a major step in winning the war in the Black Sea by cutting off a major Russian military supply route and choking Putin’s war machine.
However, the new Sea Baby drones also present a further danger to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet which has been forced to curtail its operations due to the threat from Ukrainian drones.
They have huge surprise successes in blasting multi-million warships out the water, humiliating Putin on the world stage.
Ukraine now claims to have sunk a third of the fleet and what’s left of it is in the midst of relocating to a naval base in a breakaway Georgian region.
The SBU currently deploys two types of sea drones — Sea Baby and Mamai, said Dekhtiarenko.
“Today, a drone worth [£175,000] destroys an enemy warship worth tens of millions of dollars,” said Dekhtiarenko.
“These are already new generations of drones, on the improvement of which the team of SBU specialists worked and continues to work together with other members of the Security and Defence Forces.”
The naval drones are fitted with huge explosives, remotely piloted using GPS and cameras, and guided to smash into their targets, tearing them apart.
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Compared to spending millions on missiles, they are a relatively inexpensive alternative to destroying warships.
The body of the Sea Baby is made of material said to be invisible to radars and they stealthily weave through the water before striking their target.
SBU head Vasyl Malyuk said: “The future lies with technological approaches in war”.
“In the ranks of the service, we have raised unique specialists in naval drones in order to further improve and scale up the work of clearing the Black Sea from the enemy.”
Ukraine’s spy agency, the SBU, have already orchestrated two daring attacks on the Kerch bridge in the past.
In July last year, a midnight Sea Baby drone strike caused extensive damage to the road section, hampering Russia’s ability to move tanks and supplies into Crimea.
In October 2022, a truck bomb blasted a gaping hole in the bridge’s centre, setting fire to the railway and sinking parts of the road into the water.
Yet, both times the bridge was repaired and Russia was able to continue using the crossing.
Now, Ukraine is plotting a fierce third attack – one that would take it down for good.
An official from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) said they already had “most of the means to carry out this goal”.
The source added that the bridge’s destruction was part of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s plan to end Russian naval presence in the Black Sea.
Brig-Gen. Ivan Lukashevych, of the SBU – who masterminded the ‘Sea Baby’ attack on the Kerch bridge in July 2023 – declared last month: “As long as the enemy is a beast, we will hunt it.”
“Forcing the enemy to flee from the Black Sea was the goal we sought and it was achieved,” he told The Telegraph.
“Our results speak for themselves.”
A weapons expert told The Sun how raining hell on the mega-structure with Storm Shadow missiles, sea drones and newly arrived F-16s could finally sever Russia’s only road and rail link to Crimea.
Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, believes it is entirely possible Ukraine could do it – but it needs the right weapons.
The “most actively defended bridge in the world” could be brought down with a “multi-pronged” big bang-style air and sea attack, he said.
For Ukraine, Clark said: “One goal is symbolic, one goal is to prevent the resupply of the Black Sea Fleet and the other is to cut its troops off and drive them off the peninsula.”
A source close to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence confirmed to The Sun “it’s absolutely doable”.
“It’s just a bridge, it was already damaged significantly several times before.”
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