Crimea is taken by storm: Russian ships obliterated with new missiles

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Today, there are important updates from Crimea.

Here, the escalation has reached a new level, as Ukraine has just unleashed new Swedish missiles in combat for the first time. They caught Russian defenses unprepared and were able to open the way for a series of strikes that took Crimea by storm and obliterated some of the last Russian ships there.

The Ukrainian Navy launched a salvo of advanced anti-ship weapons against a Russian-held Black Sea drilling platform near the Sivash area, roughly seventy kilometers from the Crimean coast. The Swedish-made RBS Fifteen missiles slammed into the structure with devastating precision, triggering massive explosions that engulfed the platform. Russian forces had turned the rig into a forward air-defense, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare outpost, making it a critical node in their defensive network over Crimea. The debut of the new Swedish missile was supported by Ukrainian naval and FPV drones, effectively erasing this important position in a single coordinated blow.

The introduction of the RBS Fifteen fundamentally changes the dynamics of the Black Sea battlefield, with the missile developed by Saab in Sweden being a highly advanced and capable of operating in complex electronic warfare environments. Measuring over four meters in length and weighing around six hundred fifty kilograms, it carries a two hundred kilogram high-explosive warhead and travels at near-sonic speed. What makes it particularly dangerous is its guidance system that combines inertial navigation, GPS, and terminal active radar homing, so it can independently locate and strike targets without further input after launch. Its sea-skimming flight profile keeps it low enough to evade radar detection, while built-in electronic counter-countermeasures make it highly resistant to jamming or spoofing.

Most importantly, the modern variants supplied to Ukraine extend the missile’s range beyond two hundred kilometers, allowing Ukrainian forces to strike from deep within their own territory or from mobile launch platforms, making detection and interception extremely difficult. When combined with Ukraine’s domestically produced Neptune missiles, the RBS Fifteen adds a new layer of flexibility and precision, and while Neptune offers longer range and heavier payloads, the Swedish missile excels in survivability and resistance to electronic warfare, making it ideal for penetrating defended zones and eliminating high-value targets.

The destruction of the Sivash platform immediately translated into operational advantages, as it removed a key Russian surveillance and air-defense node. Ukraine effectively opened a corridor into Crimea, allowing follow-on strikes to penetrate deeper and with greater success, which was followed by a series of coordinated attacks across the peninsula. Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian patrol aircraft at the Kirovske airfield, confirmed by satellite imagery, eliminating a valuable reconnaissance asset used to monitor maritime and coastal activity, further degrading Russia’s ability to prevent other attacks.

At the same time, Ukrainian intelligence units struck the Kerch Strait logistics network, disabling the railway ferry Slavianin, the last operational ferry used by Russian forces to transport fuel, ammunition, and equipment into Crimea, disrupting one of the final supply lifelines sustaining Russian troops on the peninsula.

As part of these efforts, Ukrainian long-range drones systematically dismantled Russian air defenses and logistics hubs across Crimea. Buk and Tor systems were destroyed alongside a Zoopark radar, allowing a devastating strike on the fuel depot in Feodosia, which erupted into massive fires visible from over twenty kilometers away.

Most significantly, Ukrainian forces expanded their focus to the remnants of the Black Sea Fleet itself. Waves of jet-powered drones approached from the Black Sea, synchronized with additional launches from mainland Ukraine, overwhelming already strained Russian defenses. In a complex multi-layered operation, drones struck several major naval assets in Sevastopol, including the large landing ships Yamal, Azov, and Nikolai Filchenkov, with a combined cost of around two hundred million US dollars. All vessels were located in Sevastopol Bay at the time of the attack and were subsequently taken out of service after previously being used for operations against Ukraine. Additional damage was reported to a patrol boat, radar systems, and communications infrastructure, further degrading Russia’s ability to operate and coordinate in the region.