Satellite images show damage to Russian naval base after Ukraine says it hit submarine with underwater drone

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Monday released a video of the attack by the Ukrainian-made Sub Sea Baby drone. It shows a calm port with several ships before the camera view pans to the left to show a massive explosion that kicks up water and debris.

“The submarine suffered critical damage and was effectively put out of action,” the release said, adding that the target was a Kilo-class submarine with four Kalibr cruise missile launchers that Russia had used to strike Ukraine.

The attack was a joint operation between the SBU and the Ukrainian navy, the release said.

NBC News was able to verify the location of the video posted online by the SBU and that the attack likely happened either Sunday or Monday, but not the specific target or the extent of the damage.

Alexander Kamyshin, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, posted on X that the attack was the first time that an underwater drone had destroyed a submarine.

Russia denied the attack caused any damage.

“None of the ships or submarines of the Black Sea Fleet stationed in the bay of the Novorossiysk naval base, nor their crews, were damaged as a result of the sabotage and are on duty as normal,” the fleet was quoted as saying by state news agencies.

“The real question is how the system got into position undetected and acquired and tracked its target,” Benjamin Jensen, a senior fellow for the Defense and Security Department at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an email response to questions from NBC News.

Both Ukraine and Russia have extensively — and effectively — used drones in the nearly four-year war, the first conflict in which drones have been employed on such a massive scale.