Ukraine’s most significant success in fighting off Russia has arguably been in the Black Sea. It forced Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to withdraw from occupied Crimea and effectively confined much of it to Novorossiysk, more than 500 kilometres by sea from Ukraine-held coast.
But Russia is now learning from its mistakes and attempting to deploy unmanned systems at sea more effectively, similar to its 2024 deployment of the elite Rubicon unit for use of advanced aerial drones.
When Russia attempted to strangle Ukraine’s economy by blocking grain exports, uncrewed Ukrainian boats helped reopen maritime routes. The Russian fleet eventually had to retreat to Novorossiysk.
"The fleet is fully blocked," Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s former defence intelligence chief, stated. "And that thing that Russians previously joked about—that Ukraine has no fleet, only a few boats—now they are faced with the same thing."
"What’s happened in the Black Sea shows how bewilderingly fast warfare is changing," former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently wrote after speaking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich. "European nations must adapt to this new way of fighting."
Ukraine later expanded these tactics as part of what it calls a campaign of kinetic sanctions. In September 2025, Ukrainian naval drones struck oil export infrastructure at the Russian port of Tuapse, damaging a key loading pier and temporarily disrupting shipments. They targeted Novorossiysk, too.
In early December, the Russian government ordered port operators to inspect the underwater hulls of incoming foreign vessels for explosive devices and suspicious objects. Within a few weeks, an underwater Ukrainian drone had hit a moored Russian submarine.
At first, Russia struggled to use these systems effectively.
According to intelligence from the Atesh partisan network in late January, Moscow was preparing to replace Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Sergei Pinchuk, following repeated failures to defend naval bases against Ukrainian drone strikes.
However, the contest is ongoing, and Russia has gradually adapted. In a January 2026 intelligence update, the British Ministry of Defence assessed that, "the Russian Navy is seeking to develop its USV [uncrewed surface vessels] and counter-USV capabilities, attempting to close the gap with Ukraine’s more successful asymmetric maritime capabilities." It has strengthened harbour defences, particularly in occupied Crimea, and invested in countermeasures.
Russia has been trying to show it can counter Ukraine’s naval drones. Rubicon published footage in December claiming the destruction of a Ukrainian HUR Magura V7 naval drone. According to these claims, the drone, which was reportedly equipped with two AIM-9M Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, was struck by a Lancet loitering munition. Magura naval drones were previously responsible for reportedly shooting down two Russian fighters, each worth US$50 million.
The maritime domain has become a fast moving cycle of countermeasures, but not as fast as on land. Whereas drones for use over land may face new countermeasures in a matter of days or weeks, those on water, USVs, still probably have months after their deployment before a technical answer to them appears.
"These cycles are responding to war demands and are quick: the official figures usually discuss a two- to three-month innovation cycle before a given system may be susceptible to countermeasures," said Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
In December, Alexey Chadayev, head of the Ushkuynik Research and Production Center, admitted that Russia was, "lagging behind its adversaries in unmanned naval warfare overall," though he said deployment of new surface and underwater systems would begin in 2026.
According to Bendett, Russian developers, "went back to the drawing board to build their USVs—their current designs, at least half a dozen USVs are influenced by Ukraine’s own uncrewed boats that Kyiv started using against the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2022."
At first, Russia struggled to use these systems effectively. "Initially, Russian fielding of these USVs were likely hampered by a lack of targets, given that Ukraine lacked significant naval assets to strike in turn," he said.
A defining theme of this war has been cheap drones inflicting heavy damage on expensive Russian systems, and naval warfare is no exception.
Over time, Russian concepts have evolved. Boat designs such as the Vizier, Murena, Orcan and BEK-1000 are being adapted for broader missions. Bendett added that, "the Russian navy is also contemplating using its USVs as carriers of ISR equipment, as well as drones, missiles, rockets and other strike assets to go after Ukrainian USVs and Ukraine’s shore-based military assets."
The Kremlin previously announced a US$100 billion effort to modernise the Russian Navy. In January 2026, Moscow began a large-scale recruitment drive for its newly created Unmanned Systems Forces. It has set a goal of training one million specialists in unmanned systems by 2030, signalling that it sees drone warfare as central to its future force structure.
In August 2025, Moscow claimed its first successful USV strike, saying a drone boat sank the Ukrainian reconnaissance ship Simferopol near the Danube River. The effect was limited, since Ukraine has few large naval vessels, but it signalled that Russia was beginning to operationalise its systems.
Russian developers were also reportedly testing a riverine USV linked by a protected fibre optic cable to a shore operator, enabling it to act as a kamikaze system or as a launch platform for FPV aerial drones. Russian riverine USVs have been used to lay mines in the Dnipro River to interdict Ukrainian resupply boats near the contested islands around Kherson. They’ve also cleared mines.
Russian state media reported that forces in the Kherson area would receive USVs to strike coastal targets and support resupply in the Dnipro basin. Some would be capable of carrying payloads of up to 500 kg.
Russia is also testing more ambitious concepts, including the Katran, a drone-carrying craft designed to launch dozens of FPV aerial drones on missions up to 200 kilometres from the launching point. Andrey Bezrukov, chief executive of the Center for Unmanned Systems and Technologies said, "Katran USV has been launched into mass production, and the USV may now be used under a different name."
Olena Kryzhanivska, a defence analyst and author of the Ukraine’s Arms Monitor newsletter said, "both countries are experimenting with ways to extend the range of their drones, particularly ordinary FPVs and the fibre-optic ones, which have the advantage of being resistant to jamming."
In November, one Russian drone media channel mentioned how Russia should leverage mesh and point-to-point relay networks to create distributed communication bridges for strike USVs operating near hostile shores.
Still, Ukraine retains the upper hand because of the asymmetry: it effectively has no traditional navy, and therefore offers few targets, while Russia has a large navy. A defining theme of this war has been cheap drones inflicting heavy damage on expensive Russian systems, and naval warfare is no exception.
Article reprinted with permission from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's analysis and commentary site The Strategist.