Kyiv said Monday that its drones sank two Russian patrol boats near the Black Sea’s Snake Island, where Ukrainian soldiers rebuffed Moscow’s demands to surrender at the start of its invasion.
“Two Russian Raptor boats were destroyed at dawn today near Snake Island,” Ukraine’s defense ministry said in a statement distributed on social media.
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The defense ministry also released grainy black and white aerial footage showing an explosion on a small military vessel.
“The Bayraktars are working,” Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was quoted as saying in the statement, referring to Turkish-made military drones.
Raptor patrol boats can carry up to three crew and 20 personnel.
They are usually equipped with machine guns and used in reconnaissance or landing operations.
Snake Island became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance after a radio exchange went viral at the start of the war, in which Ukrainian soldiers used an expletive in rebuffing a demand by the Russian warship Moskva to surrender.
The Moskva, sank in the Black Sea in mid-April following what Moscow said was an explosion on board. Ukraine said it had hit the warship with missiles.
“The Raptors went to join the Moskva,” Vladislav Nazarov, a representative of the Ukrainian army, said in a video.
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https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2022/05/02/Ukraine-says-destroys-two-Russian-Raptor-class-patrol-boats