This is the moment the Ukrainian Navy destroys two Russian Raptor-class patrol boats with a Bayraktar drone.
The Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on May 8: “A Bayraktar of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed two more 03160 ‘Raptor’ speedboats of the terrorist country.”
The Raptor-class boat, a series of Russian high-speed coastal patrol boats, was formally known as Project 03160.
Bayraktar TB2 is a long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remote-controlled or autonomous flight operations.
The Ukrainian military pointed out that two other Raptor boats were destroyed by a Bayraktar TB2 earlier this month.
Russian troops invaded Ukraine on 24th February in what the Kremlin is now calling a “special military operation” to “protect Donbass”.
In related news, Vladimir Putin has addressed a huge military parade in Red Square in Moscow on Victory Day.
The annual event commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany at the hands of the Soviet Union in World War II.
The Russian President used his speech to claim Russian troops in eastern Ukraine were “defending the motherland”.
He also said the “special military operation” in Ukraine was necessary and was provoked by the West.
However, he did not make any major announcement concerning the invasion, as many had speculated.
Some 65,000 personnel, 2,400 items of military hardware and over 400 aircraft are taking part in today’s parades, which are taking place across 28 Russian cities.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday in his own Victory Day speech that Russia was repeating Nazi atrocities.
He also denounced heavy shelling carried out by Russia in eastern Ukraine and said a strike on a school building turned shelter in Luhansk Oblast killed 60.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called on Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine immediately.
From February 24 to May 9, the total combat losses of Russian troops stand at around 25,650 personnel, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military also claims that Russia has lost 1,145 tanks, 2,764 armored fighting vehicles, 513 artillery systems, 185 multiple launch rocket systems, 87 anti-aircraft warfare systems, 199 aircraft, 158 helicopters, 1,970 motor vehicles and fuel tankers, 12 boats/cutters, 377 unmanned aerial vehicles, 41 units of special equipment, and 94 cruise missiles.
Meanwhile, a host of international organisations have banned Russia, already hit by economic sanctions, from taking part in sporting and cultural events, such as this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, in response to the country’s invasion.
