Bogged down in small-scale infantry attacks and incremental advances, Ukraine sought to gain an advantage in the 76th week of the war by attacking Russian shipping at range and was accused of drone strikes targeting Moscow.
Drone footage Ukraine released on August 4 showed the prow of a surface drone approaching the Olenegorsky Gornyak, a Ropucha-class Russian landing ship, before going blank at contact range.
The attack happened just outside Novorossiysk harbour, supposedly a safe port on the eastern edge of the Black Sea, to which Russia had relocated much of its navy fleet based in Sevastopol after Ukraine sank its Black Sea flagship in May.
Daylight footage showed the Olenegorsky Gornyak listing severely to port as it was towed to Novorossiysk harbour.
“This poses a great dilemma for the Russians,” wrote Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategy at St Andrews University.
“Do they now deploy more of their surface assets to protect tankers and the like while they transit the Black Sea – which will make those warships inviting targets? Do they try to attack the Ukrainian coast – which has already shown itself to be deadly to Russian forces?”
Source from www.aljazeera.com