Ukraine drone commander: ‘My dream is to wipe out Russia’s entire fleet’ - The Times

Man known as callsign 13 says he will not rest until the Black Sea is free again

At a secret base on the Dnipro river, Ukraine’s new fleet of sea drones flanks both sides of a dockside warehouse packed with enough explosives to ­destroy Russia’s entire Black Sea navy.

Ukraine’s military intelligence service, GUR, has disclosed three types of drones to The Times.

The fleet’s commander, callsign 13, said he had been blasting holes in some of Russia’s most advanced warships, sinking his latest two targets off Chornomorske, Crimea, on November 10.

He told how the drones crept into port at dawn, avoiding anti-submarine nets to find the right angle of attack.

The Russians saw them and fired ­machineguns at the low, narrow silhouettes. But the spray of bullets missed their targets when the drones accelerated.

More ­Russian gunners opened up with heavy calibre weapons but two of the drones struck a Shark and a Serna-class landing craft while a third exploded ­into the dock. The ships sank, taking an armoured personnel carrier with them to the bottom of the Black Sea.

“They knew we were coming,” the GUR commander said. “But they couldn’t do anything about it. The joy was incredible. It was my life’s goal to sink a Russian ship and we sank two of them at once. And as far as I know, no one had ever done this before anywhere. Now we have a new goal — to sink something bigger.”

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