{"id":1390250,"date":"2026-06-18T10:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/?p=1390250"},"modified":"2026-06-17T11:40:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T08:40:29","slug":"russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia has proven to be particularly unprepared for the asymmetric tactics employed by Ukrainian naval drones, allowing Ukraine to significantly limit the activity of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea and effectively confine it to its bases.<\/p>\n

This was stated on Ukrainian Radio<\/a> by Andrii Ryzhenko, a retired Navy captain first rank and former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Navy from 2004 to 2020, UATV English<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n

According to Ryzhenko, modern naval warfare is increasingly moving away from the principle of numerical superiority and is instead based on maneuverability and exploiting an adversary\u2019s vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cManeuver warfare at sea is built on asymmetry. Asymmetry means identifying an enemy\u2019s weak points and exploiting or destroying them,\u201d the expert explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ryzhenko noted that Russia\u2019s Black Sea Fleet was designed according to Cold War-era concepts, relying on the large-scale deployment of numerous warships. However, the emergence of naval drones exposed a critical vulnerability in that model.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strategy was based on overwhelming force \u2014 landing large numbers of assets, crushing the opponent with sheer strength, and accomplishing objectives. But thanks to this asymmetric approach, a critical vulnerability of these massive Russian warships to naval drones was exposed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to the expert, despite Russia\u2019s substantial advantage at the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine managed to alter the situation through the use of modern technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to this innovative approach, despite being outmatched by a ratio of 12 to 1 at the beginning of the war and 4 to 1 today, Ukraine has effectively confined enemy forces to ports and naval bases,\u201d Ryzhenko stated.<\/p>\n

He added that Russian bases, including those in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk, have significantly strengthened their defenses and are forced to devote additional resources to countering naval drones.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas the Russians previously maintained around 50 ships and vessels at sea at any given time, the number of ships deployed is now often close to zero. This is precisely because of that. Naval drones have truly written a new chapter,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ryzhenko also described the further use of unmanned systems in the Black Sea as highly promising for monitoring maritime areas, protecting ports and critical infrastructure, safeguarding shipping routes, and preventing enemy forces from reaching weapon-launch positions.<\/p>\n

He added that Ukraine\u2019s experience with naval drones is already being actively studied by Western partners and incorporated into both operational concepts and technological solutions.<\/p>\n

As previously reported, Norway is allocating 1.2 billion Norwegian kroner (approximately \u20ac109 million) for the development and procurement of naval drones for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/strong> Moscow Oil Refinery suspends operations after Ukrainian drone strike<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia has proven to be particularly unprepared for the asymmetric tactics employed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1390255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,53,55,50],"tags":[76,78,72923],"sources":[],"class_list":["post-1390250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","category-russia-en","category-ukraine-en","category-svit-en","tag-glavnoe-en","tag-homepage-en","tag-frontline-update"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRussia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones - Freedom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones - Freedom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Russia has proven to be particularly unprepared for the asymmetric tactics employed ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Freedom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-18T07:20:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e-820x473.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"473\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Danylo Shportilo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Danylo Shportilo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Danylo Shportilo\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2\"},\"headline\":\"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-18T07:20:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/\"},\"wordCount\":432,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u043e\u0435\",\"\u041d\u0430 \u0433\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u0443\u044e (\u0441\u043b\u0430\u0439\u0434\u0435\u0440)\",\"Frontline update\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Russia\",\"Ukraine\",\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/\",\"name\":\"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones - Freedom\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-18T07:20:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e.jpg\",\"width\":1300,\"height\":750,\"caption\":\"Naval drone. Photo: president.gov.ua\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Freedom\",\"description\":\"UATV - UA|TV - International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2\",\"name\":\"Danylo Shportilo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Danylo Shportilo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/author\/d-shportilo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones - Freedom","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones - Freedom","og_description":"Russia has proven to be particularly unprepared for the asymmetric tactics employed ...","og_url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/","og_site_name":"Freedom","article_published_time":"2026-06-18T07:20:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":820,"height":473,"url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e-820x473.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Danylo Shportilo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Danylo Shportilo","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/"},"author":{"name":"Danylo Shportilo","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2"},"headline":"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones","datePublished":"2026-06-18T07:20:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/"},"wordCount":432,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e.jpg","keywords":["\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u043e\u0435","\u041d\u0430 \u0433\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u0443\u044e (\u0441\u043b\u0430\u0439\u0434\u0435\u0440)","Frontline update"],"articleSection":["News","Russia","Ukraine","World"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/","url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/","name":"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones - Freedom","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e.jpg","datePublished":"2026-06-18T07:20:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/frame_1300x750_a67cb15cbb934244a4a8b54166b0585e.jpg","width":1300,"height":750,"caption":"Naval drone. Photo: president.gov.ua"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/russia-proved-unprepared-to-counter-ukrainian-naval-drones\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Russia Proved Unprepared to Counter Ukrainian Naval Drones"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/","name":"Freedom","description":"UATV - UA|TV - International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2","name":"Danylo Shportilo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Danylo Shportilo"},"url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/author\/d-shportilo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1390250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1390261,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390250\/revisions\/1390261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1390255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1390250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1390250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1390250"},{"taxonomy":"sources","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sources?post=1390250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}