- Ukraine announced its unmanned boat “Sargan-3000” destroyed the Russian analogue with machine gun fire
- A collision was reported between two unmanned boats fighting right at sea.
- The video showing the message about the destruction of the Russian ship has not appeared.
The Ukrainian Navy said that the unmanned boat Sargan-3000 destroyed its armed Russian counterpart somewhere in the waters of the Black Sea.
Kyiv describes the encounter as the first time two robotic warships have fought each other directly at sea.
This claim is entirely based on the Ukrainian version, since no independent party has yet confirmed this situation.
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Machine gun fire instead of a warhead
According to the report, members of the Kyiv military intelligence HUR discovered the Russian ship before Navy crews directed their ship towards it.
The defeat was reportedly achieved using the Protector RWS, a remote-controlled turret armed with a 12.7mm gun rather than explosives.
Until now, most naval drone attacks have relied on ramming the enemy’s hull with a warhead on board, thereby destroying the attack platform.
Small-caliber weapons involve an attempt to preserve the attack platform for later tasks, rather than using it up in one strike.
Protector RWS is a system developed by Kongsberg that is already in use by several NATO forces and is installed on ground vehicles as well as small vessels.
The Ukrainian Navy has not disclosed the date, exact location or any details about the Russian ship involved in the incident.
Neither side has released video of the destruction, which is unusual given how actively both armies have been publishing drone footage.
A record built on Ukrainian accounts
The Sargan-3000 boats have already proven themselves in this war, having sunk the Russian border guard patrol ship Izumrud near Gelendzhik.
This attack occurred in July 2026 and added to the list of naval units affected since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022.
Previously, during similar operations, the missile corvette Ivanovets and the landing ship Caesar Kunikov were destroyed.
Those losses contributed to the redeployment of naval forces from Crimea east to Novorossiysk, a change that Moscow has never publicly explained.
In May 2025, Kyiv also reported that a naval drone destroyed a Russian Su-30 fighter jet using a missile designed for air combat.
That announcement, like the current one, came without sufficiently detailed images for outside analysts to independently verify the sequence of events.
Moscow is developing similar technology, including an unmanned KAMA-type boat built by Izhevsk manufacturer ZALA.
Ukrainian forces destroyed one such ship near Zmeiny Island on September 8, 2026, using explosives fired by an overhead drone.
The difference between these two episodes allows Kyiv to characterize the latest clash as something truly unprecedented.
For now, verification remains weak, with little wreckage resulting from a gun battle between small boats and few witnesses in open water.
Until video footage or a Russian confession appears online, the historical label assigned to this fight should be viewed as a statement rather than an established fact.
Via Defense Blog
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