Earlier this month Ukraine's military achieved a significant first, and one which was surely noticed by Russia as cause for deep alarm. On November 6, a large Ukrainian kamikaze drone struck Russian warships in the Caspian Sea, at a huge distance from the front lines of the war.
Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence service said at least two targets were hit, likely a pair of missile patrol ships moored closely together at the Russian naval base in the city of Kaspiysk. This is an astounding more than 900 miles (1500km) from the border with Ukraine.
The port city, located in the Republic of Dagestan, has seen an increase of Russian ships off its coast of late, given much of the Black Sea fleet has been relocated to the Caspian in order to protect these valuable military assets from drone and missile attacks out of Ukraine, especially while they are moored and inactive.
"Ukraine has repeatedly attacked the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet with drone boats and missile strikes, and it has effectively driven Russian surface combatants and submarines out of the Crimean peninsula," The Maritime Executive writes.
"The majority of the fleet is now homeported in Novorossiysk, in the northeastern corner of the Black Sea, to avoid the risk of further attacks," the report continues. "Strikes on the distant Caspian Flotilla - which Russia has used repeatedly to launch cruise missiles - indicate that Ukraine's reach has grown."
Since the start of the war Ukraine has achieved at least a dozen successful major strikes damaging Russian naval assets at the Black Sea Crimean port of Sevastopol.
But if Ukraine has demonstrated that its drones can reach all the way into the Caspian, this means Russia will have to take further measures in keeping its fleet safe. There appears to be a media blackout of the Caspian Sea drone incident, per regional media:
Despite the head of Dagestan's call not to post photos and videos of the incident, channels from Dagestan and across Russia are full of videos of the drone's flight and impact from different angles.
The incident is also being hotly discussed on local social media. During the attempt to shoot down the drone, the Russian military spared no bullets, and as a result, some of them hit the homes of the Caspian people. Bloggers complain that despite the allocation of 550 million rubles ($5,640,000) of state funds for the Safe City system, neither the Emergency Situations Ministry's warning nor the civil defense systems worked. The mayor of Kaspiysk announced after the strike that street lighting will be turned off between 1 and 8AM "to minimize the presence of people on the streets at night."
This morning, Ukrainian attack drones successfully struck Russia's Caspian Sea flotilla in the port of Kaspiysk, over 1000 km behind the frontline.
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) November 6, 2024
Seen here, a Ukrainian drone flies low over the harbor and slams into a row of docked Russian warships. pic.twitter.com/06vbjUfblQ
Speculation over the drone used in the attack has focused on the Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat aircraft. It is a tiny plane that resembles a Cessna which has been converted into a kamikaze drone.
One industry website says that the small two-seater would have to undergo extensive modifications for drone use:
For the kamikaze operation, the aircraft had to be configured to carry an explosive payload. A designated compartment could be engineered within the aircraft to securely contain the explosives, designed for safe transport and effective detonation at the target. An activation mechanism might be developed to detonate the payload either remotely or upon impact with the target.
An eyewitness account has been provided by Forbes as follows:
As Russian sailors dove for cover, one of the Aeroprakt A-22s—apparently operated by the Ukrainian intelligence directorate—plowed into a clutch of warships moored side-by-side along a pier.
According to Anton Gerashchenko, a former advisor to the interior ministry in Kyiv, the explosion damaged three ships, including two Gepard-class frigates—the fleet’s biggest ships—as well as a smaller Buyan corvette. The damaged vessels may account for nearly a third of the Caspian Fleet’s strength.
UAV strikes the port of Kaspiysk, where Russian naval ships. Local sources confirm that the drone targeted the base of the Russian Navy’s Caspian Flotilla, a site that hosts strategic assets like a missile division. pic.twitter.com/oUYUrZifhQ
— Bandera Fella *-^ (@banderafella) November 6, 2024
For such a great distance as over 1,000km - the aircraft would also have to undergo significant upgrades to increase fuel capacity or improve fuel efficiency. Some of Ukraine's most significant strikes on Russian territory of late have especially focused on taking out fuel depots and energy transit points, many which are deep into Russia.