2 people died and several went missing following a Russian attack on an Ukrainian Navy vessel, Dmytro Pletenchuk, a spokesperson for Kyiv's naval forces confirmed on Monday.
"But the majority of the crew has been safe since yesterday," he added, stating that a search and rescue operation would be launched to find those missing, as per a Kyiv Independent report.
Russia's Defence Ministry on Thursday had claimed that one of its naval drones had struck the Ukrainian medium reconnaissance ship Simferopol near the mouth of the Danube River Delta (partly located in Ukraine's Odessa region), adding that it had sunk.
🚨Never seen something like this!
— Nabila Jamal (@nabilajamal_) August 28, 2025
At the mouth of the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river flowing into the Black Sea.. an unmanned boat rammed and sank Ukraine’s reconnaissance ship Simferopol, named after the Crimean capital
Ukraine’s Armed Forces have confirmed the loss pic.twitter.com/TYuGD4D20k
“Using a high-speed uncrewed surface (USV) vehicle, the Ukrainian Navy’s Simferopol medium reconnaissance ship was defeated at the River Danube mouth,” Russia's Ministry of Defence had claimed.
This strike is the first recorded instance of a Russian naval drone attacking an Ukrainian ship, and is a major naval escalation of the three-year-long conflict.
The 54.8-metre-long Laguna-class medium reconnaissance ship—named after a Crimean city—was announced by the Deputy Commander of the Naval Forces of Ukraine in April 2019, and was inducted into Ukraine's naval arsenal two years later. Capable of housing almost 30 officers, the Simferopol was reportedly the Ukrainian Navy's biggest ship.
Desspite being armed with a 30 mm AK-306 artillery system, and designed for radio, electronic, radar, and optical reconnaissance, it was blasted to smithereens by Russia's sea drone in a region of increasing geopolitical significance.
This is also one of the only instances of Russia inflicting heavy losses on an Ukrainian fleet, following Kyiv's heavy attacks that have often damaged Moscow's Black Sea Fleet.
