Ukraine will be able to carry out more attacks on Russian ships, Digital Transformation Minister Mihailo Fedorov, who has played a key role in building the country’s drone industry, told Reuters after a recent series of sea raids.
The Ukrainians’ new kamikaze maritime drone, Sea BabyPhoto: Not supplied / WillWest News / Profimedia
“There will be more drones, more attacks and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” Digital Transformation Minister Mihailo Fedorov said in an interview on Friday, answering a question about the recent attacks near Crimea.
This week, Ukraine carried out several maritime drone and missile attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet in and around the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukraine recently claimed responsibility for the attacks in Crimea, after previously not directly confirming involvement in the 2014 bombings of military targets on the Russian-controlled peninsula.
Moscow acknowledged a Ukrainian missile attack that damaged a warship and a submarine this week, but said it repelled all maritime drone attacks.
On Thursday, Fedorov posted a video on social media that appeared to be taken from a maritime drone flying toward a much larger warship, followed by an explosion.
The production of aerial drones in Ukraine has increased more than 100 times
Fedorov said at the time that the attack was the work of Ukrainian systems financed with funds from a government-run crowdfunding platform that raises money for equipment, including drones.
Fedorov also said that the production of aerial drones in Ukraine increased more than 100 times in 2023 compared to last year.
“I think there will be an increase of about 120 to 140 times by the end of this year, if we compare it with the previous one,” Fedorov pointed out.
According to the minister, Ukraine is testing artificial intelligence systems that can locate targets several kilometers away and guide drones to them even if external communications are disrupted by electronic warfare measures.
“We need AI, for example, target-finding technology, the way the Lancet (a Russian drone, no) works, so that a target can be located during electronic warfare and can be destroyed.”
“Right now it’s all in the testing phase, but some drones we buy use AI to recognize targets. In a forest, it can detect a target and recognize whether it is a person, a tank or a specific vehicle. These technologies are actively used,” concluded Fedorov
