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Ukraine's unmanned drone boats have gained fame and notoriety for their role in subduing Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and they continue to rack up successes. But a lesser-known drone submarine program could be a big new contributor, Gen. David Petraeus (U.S. Army, ret'd) told The Telegraph this week. <\/p>\n
Ukraine's sea drones emerged from a covert Western-assisted development program early in the conflict, and over the last three years, they have reduced the Russian Navy's Black Sea surface fleet through repeated attacks. Despite Russia's defensive measures, they continue to cause damage – like the drone attacks on Novorossiysk and Tuapse last week, which involved both drone boats and aerial drones (some of which may have been launched by the boats). <\/p>\n
\n???? Review of the Ukrainian naval USV with FPV drones from the Russians. pic.twitter.com\/TveTOlsGjz<\/a><\/p>\n
— Oko Gora (@oko_gora_tg) September 27, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nTurkish fishermen found an unmanned sea drone off Trabzon’s Çar??ba?? coast.<\/p>\n
Coast Guard towed it to Yoroz Port; suspected to be Ukrainian Magura V5 kamikaze USV. pic.twitter.com\/NpiSC64qt0<\/a><\/p>\n
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The next development on the Black Sea front may be Ukraine's underwater drone program. Ukraine's Toloka drone sub series has evolved over the past two years: the latest top-end model has a claimed range of 1,000 nautical miles and an explosive payload of about 11,000 pounds. If operationalized, it is sized appropriately for damaging infrastructure, and would likely be used against high-value hard targets like the Kerch Strait Bridge – a symbol of Russian control that Ukraine has repeatedly tried to destroy, with limited success.<\/p>\n
Underwater drones would be harder to detect and defeat, and might be able to evade some of the floating barriers that Russia has installed to protect key installations. In a move that would increase its drone subs' survivability, Ukraine recently targeted and destroyed two of Russia's hard-to-replace coastal antisubmarine patrol aircraft, reducing Russian defenses against any future underwater attacks. <\/p>\n
\n??For the first time in history, Prymary of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence burned down two Russian Be-12 Chayka anti-submarine aircraft on the territory of Russian-occupied Crimea.<\/p>\n
The Chayka aircraft are equipped with expensive equipment to identify and combat submarines.… pic.twitter.com\/nAZsbz8WRf<\/a><\/p>\n
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Gen. Petraeus, a senior commander of U.S. forces during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the Telegraph<\/a> that a scaled-up drone industry would help Ukraine win, if combined with financing and sanctions. "If those three sets of actions are taken simultaneously, I think you could finally get a situation where Russia would just be forced to halt the fighting because they can’t achieve additional gains," he said. <\/p>\n
For financing further scale-up of Ukraine's drone industry, he called for Europe to repurpose frozen Russian assets, a plan under active discussion among European leaders. On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed<\/a> using $165 billion worth of Russian funds to back a "reparations loan" for defense assistance, which would be used for buying European-made weapons for Ukrainian use. <\/p>\n