Ukraine’s naval drones are evolving again.
Around the Kinburn Spit, a narrow strip of Russian-held Mykolaiv Oblast that juts into the Black Sea near the mouth of the Dnipro River, Ukrainian unmanned surface vessels appear to be adding another role: floating platforms able to release first-person-view drones, fire thermobaric rockets and strike targets along the coast.
For much of the war, Ukraine and Russia have been locked in a constant technological race on land and in the air. A similar adaptation cycle has been unfolding in the Black Sea, where Ukrainian drone boats have already carried missiles and launched FPVs, and now appear to be combining drones with thermobaric rocket fire.
From Kamikaze Boats To Floating Launch Platforms
According to the Russian Telegram channel “Archangel of Special Forces,” which has more than a million subscribers, Ukraine is using USVs carrying both first-person-view (FPV) drones and Shmel thermobaric rocket launchers to strike Russian positions around Kinburn.
The pro-war Telegram channel claimed the drone boats carry six to eight FPV drones inside onboard launch compartments that open during an attack. The same vessels were reportedly fitted with thermobaric Shmel rocket launchers capable of blasting entrenched positions along the shoreline.
Russian forces captured the Kinburn Spit at the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, but the exposed position remains vulnerable.
“The rocket warheads are thermobaric, which are not armor penetrating, and so may be for use against relatively light ground vehicles and structures,” Jonathan Lippert, president of Defense Tech for Ukraine, told me. “These might be combined with the drones for coastal raids against occupied shore positions. Such a mission could be totally unmanned, or these could be for fire support while commandos land in other boats.”
The Russian channel also warned that further Ukrainian attempts to strike offshore gas platforms or stage amphibious raids along the southern front could not be ruled out.
Samuel Bendett, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told me the development fits a wider Ukrainian effort to turn unmanned surface vessels into more versatile strike platforms.
“Ukraine continues to utilize its USV platforms to strike multiple Russian targets – at sea and on land,” said Bendett. “Its use of FPVs against land-based targets has already proven successful, while some of its USVs have managed to shoot down Russian airborne targets like combat aircraft and helicopters.”
Olena Kryzhanivska, a defense analyst, told me that Sea Baby naval drones can carry smaller FPV drones far beyond the range they could reliably reach on their own — a combination Ukraine has already used against Russian maritime targets, in what she called “Operation Spiderweb – but at sea,” a reference to an earlier fiber-optic FPV attack coordinated from a naval platform.
The advantage is straightforward: a larger carrier delivers multiple FPVs close to the target, enabling coordinated strikes rather than relying on a single drone to survive the entire journey.
The latest Kinburn reports appear to be another step in Ukraine’s broader effort to turn naval drones into multi-role weapons platforms rather than a completely new direction. In December 2024, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency released footage appearing to show a Magura V5 naval drone armed with R-73 air-to-air missiles downing a Russian Mi-8 helicopter over the Black Sea near occupied Crimea.
Ukrainian officials later claimed naval drones were also involved in attacks against Russian Su-30 fighter jets operating over the Black Sea, signaling that the vessels were evolving into improvised mobile air defense platforms.
Ukraine had already shown this direction earlier, when Magura-class boats were filmed launching FPVs from protected bays. During attacks on Tuapse and Novorossiysk in September 2025, USVs were also spotted carrying multiple fiber-optic FPV drones in compartments along their hulls.
The combination gives Ukraine a sea-based launch platform for strikes on coastal positions and targets farther inland, while also potentially supporting amphibious raids.
According to Bendett, the FPVs give the drone boat both offensive reach and a means of self-defense against Russian aircraft, helicopters and possibly enemy USVs. The rocket armament may serve a similar purpose.
Bendett noted that the Shmel rocket system has a range that can vary from a few hundred meters to more than 1,000 meters, making it potentially useful as a close-range defensive weapon against Russian aircraft and helicopters.
“There are precedents with the Ukrainian USVs downing Russian air assets with rockets mounted on their unmanned surface vessels,” Bendett said.
Even in a limited role, drone boats armed with FPVs and rockets could provide fire support for Ukrainian special forces raids against exposed Russian coastal positions.
Russia is already trying to adapt. Moscow’s main challenge, Bendett said, is detecting Ukrainian naval drones early enough to scramble aircraft, maritime assets or shore-based defenses.
For Russia, the danger is no longer just an explosive boat targeting warships that have already largely retreated from Crimea. It is a floating launch platform that can bring drones, rockets and other weapons closer to the peninsula’s exposed coastline and air defenses.