Two Russian naval Raptor patrol boats have been destroyed today near Snake Island close to the Ukrainian coast.
The vessels were hit in the Black Sea by Ukrainian military drones in a further blow to Vladimir Putin - as shown in a dramatic video posted to social media on May 5.
"Two Russian Raptor boats were destroyed at dawn today near Snake Island," said Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
He said it showed Ukraine's Bayraktar drone - made in Turkey - "works" against Russian forces.
The attack came as Ukraine claimed to have detained Russian GRU military intelligence operatives in the Donbas.
A picture showed the military reconnaissance officers blindfolded and half naked after being held, according to Ukrainian sources. Some appeared wounded.
Many others were killed in an ambush by Ukrainian infantrymen but the exact circumstances are not known, it was claimed.
The Raptor boats were being used to evacuate Russian military personnel from notorious Snake Island, and replace them with new personnel, it was reported.
The strikes came “as the enemy tried to carry out the evacuation and replenishment of personnel of their units remaining on the island using landing speed boats of the Raptor type,” said Ukraine’s Operational Command South.
Last week Ukraine claimed to strike the remaining Russian troops occupying Snake Island, whose defenders famously told a battleship to "go f*** yourself" during the opening days of the war in late February.
Project 03160 Raptor high-speed boats are designed for patrolling, search and rescue operations, landing operations at a maximum distance of up to 100 miles from base. The greatest length is 16.9 metres.
The GRU is seen as Russia's most secretive and - until recently - most effective intelligence service.
Britain says a GRU hit squad was behind the poisoning with Novichok of Skripal - who had defected to Britain - and his daughter Yulia in 2018.
In the Cold War, a GRU agent under diplomatic cover in London, Captain Yevgeny Ivanov, triggered the fall of a Tory government after he seduced Christine Keeler, the lover of British war minister John Profumo.
Neither Russian or Ukrainian forces are showing any signs of stopping as the war nears the end of its third month, despite recent concerns about Vladimir Putin's health.
The Russian president, 69, continues to make the threat of using nuclear bombs, with reports from the Kremlin suggesting that weapons could be launched later this year.
In a warning to Boris Johnson and other Western leaders, he bragged about his army's "unstoppable" Satan 2 ballistic missile, which he claims could destroy an area the size of Britain.
The Sarmat ICBMs, which can travel 11,000 miles - roughly the distance from England to New Zealand, are said to carry 10 or more nuclear warheads, and could be launched by this autumn, according to Russian sources.
Putin said: "The missile can break through all modern anti-missile defences. There is nothing like this anywhere in the world, and won't be for a long time."
He also declared the Sarmat will "ensure Russia's security from external threats and make those who try to threaten our country with aggressive rhetoric think twice."
The number of casualties estimated to have lost their lives as a result of the ongoing conflict, which has wreaked havoc across Europe, is estimated to be in its tens of thousands.
It comes as hundreds of Ukrainian refugees have started making their way to the UK, with many generous Brits offering up their homes to families in their times of need.
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