Ukrainian Navy strikes Sobol and Grachonok near Crimean Bridge
The Ukrainian Navy struck Russian boats guarding the crimean bridge in occupied Crimea early on Thursday, April 30, hitting the Federal Security Service patrol boat Sobol and the anti-sabotage boat Grachonok. The Navy said the vessels were key units used to guard the crossing and counter sabotage operations in the Black Sea.
Kerch Strait boats hit
The Navy said its forces and means inflicted damage on the Russian naval fleet in the Kerch Strait area. The service said the enemy suffered irrecoverable and sanitary losses after the strike, which targeted boats tied to the Coast Guard of the Border Service of FSB and the Russian Navy.
A short video released by the Navy appears to show the moment of the strike from naval drones. Kyiv Post could not independently verify the time or location of the footage, leaving the clip as supporting material rather than a separate confirmed record of where and when the boats were hit.
Marquise and Slavyanin
The attack on April 30 fits into a sequence of Ukrainian strikes on Russian maritime assets around Crimea and the Black Sea. On April 29, a unit of the Ukrainian Navy struck the sanctioned tanker Marquise near Tuapse on Russia’s Black Sea coast, hitting the stern and causing an explosion in the propeller and engine room area.
The Marquise was a Cameroon-flagged tanker with a capacity of over 37,000 tons. It was drifting without cargo about 210 km, or 130 miles, from Russian Tuapse with its Automatic Identification System turned off. In early April, Ukrainian military intelligence reported that its special forces had destroyed the Slavyanin, Russia’s last railway ferry in the Kerch Strait, after earlier damage in March left it afloat. According to that report, the ferry had been used to supply troops in occupied Crimea and to transport fuel, weapons, ammunition, and military equipment.
Kerch Bridge security
The main operational point in the April 30 strike is narrow and specific: the Ukrainian Navy said it hit boats that Russia used to guard the Kerch Bridge and counter sabotage operations. That leaves Russia with another damaged layer of maritime security around a crossing that its own forces protect with specialized patrol and anti-sabotage vessels.
The latest footage and the earlier April 29 and April 6 strikes show a continuing campaign against Russian naval and ferry assets tied to the Kerch Strait. The next publicly relevant step is any further statement from the Ukrainian Navy on damage assessment or any Russian response to the boats lost in the latest attack.
