Budanov: Russia destroys 60-70% of naval drones, but even then they are effective

The naval kamikaze drones that Ukraine uses to destroy Russian equipment near the occupied Crimea are an effective weapon, despite the fact that the Russians destroy 60% or 70% of them.

This was stated by the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (MDI) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov in an interview with the "Crimea.Realities" project of "Radio Liberty".

He declined to say the number of drones in use or the tasks they perform.

"For obvious reasons, it is impossible to say how many of these drones there are. But, as you can see, our cuts, those made by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, what the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) publishes, just imagine how much it approximately should be. Letʼs put it this way: itʼs a lot. Itʼs actually a lot. How effectively does it all work? Since there are real losses, and the price of such a drone and the price of a warship are incomparable, it can be said that this is a rather effective method. But, of course, they destroy 60 percent, maybe even 70 percent. Itʼs true. There is nothing to hide here, as they say. However, the problem for them is those 30 percent," he noted.

According to Budanov, there are cases when a drone is destroyed next to a Russian ship, and then the ship goes "for long-term repairs."

"For example, the story when sea scooters entered the waters of the Sevastopol bay. There was a known case. It was destroyed. On approach to frigate Admiral Essen, right on approach. If you look at this situation at first, it seemed unsuccessful. But from the blast wave (since it was destroyed about 100 meters from the ship, and the charge is quite powerful) and from the debris, the shipʼs radio-electronic equipment, certain electronics, antennas, certain systems and a hydroacoustic system were completely damaged. And he left for 3.5 months for repairs. He stood in the dock for three and a half months," the head of the MDI declared.

He emphasized that maritime drones are an effective deterrent weapon. "This is not an offensive weapon. Of course, they cannot be attacked. But to paralyze the activity of the fleet, which, in the end, in principle happened — this has already been achieved. Ships do not go further than the Sevastopol raid in the northern direction at all," Budanov stated.

• On August 1, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported an "unsuccessful" attack by three naval drones on patrol ships of the Black Sea Fleet 340 km from Sevastopol, which the Russians allegedly repelled. However, Babelʼs source in the security and defense sector informed that the Russian sailors of one of these ships asked for the evacuation of the victims, which contradicts the claims of the "successful repulsion" of the drone attack. Intercepted conversation is here. At the time of the conversation, there was at least one dead and five wounded.
• This is not the first time that the Ministry of Defense of Russia reports on the successful repulsion of a drone attack on warships, and then there are confirmations of the opposite.
• On May 24 of this year, two drones attacked the warship "Ivan Hurs". The video of the attack appeared the next day. The footage shows that the attack involved naval drones from the so-called drone fleet, which was raised through UNITED24. Such drones have already carried out attacks on Russian ships of the Black Sea Fleet.