Strana 39
Hunt for a Submarine
Footage from the last successful Ukrainian
drone attack against Russian aviation
appeared on Tuesday, December 23, although
it had occurred much earlier. In this case, the
reason for the delayed publication was secrecy.
The target was an Ilyushin Il-38N aircraft at
the Yeisk airbase, and the strike was part of
a much more complex operation.
The Il-38N is an upgraded version of the
Russian maritime patrol aircraft. It can monitor
objects on the surface within a radius of 320
km and can simultaneously track 32 targets
on the surface and underwater. However, the
Russian Navy received only a few of these
modernized aircraft (eight are reported). Only
one operated in the Black Sea region. Since
the SBU was preparing an attack on the port
of Novorossiysk and the Il-38N could have
detected it in advance, this aircraft had to be
disabled first. The attack on Novorossiysk took
place on Monday, December 15, so the Il-38N
must have been hit earlier. The operation was
carried out by the 13th Main Counterintelligence
Directorate of the SBU. They used a drone
equipped with a warhead from an anti-aircraft
missile. It contained 2,000 fragments, which
were fired downward as the drone flew over
the Il-38N. The aircraft was not destroyed, but
the shrapnel seriously damaged the fuselage
and especially the antenna on its upper
forward section. As a result, the aircraft lost
its ability to perform patrol duties.
This then allowed the Ukrainians to attack
Novorossiysk, where the Russian Black Sea
Fleet had withdrawn. An underwater naval
drone of the Sea Baby type penetrated the
inner harbor basin and subsequently exploded
at the pier just behind a moored submarine.
The Ukrainians hacked into the port’s security
cameras, enabling them to monitor and record
the attack. The submarine, whose name was
not disclosed, was not destroyed, but the
powerful explosion apparently damaged its
rudders and propulsion system. The Russians
later released a video claiming to show that
the submarine was undamaged, but the rear
section was missing from the footage. And
most importantly, by the end of January –
a month and a half after the attack – the vessel
had not moved from its position.
Bizarre Accidents
During the period under review, Russian
aviation also suffered significant losses due
to acts of sabotage and accidents. The first
extraordinary incident occurred on Sunday,
December 7, in an unspecified bomber regiment.
A Su-34 was preparing for a combat mission in
support of Russian infantry (probably carrying
guided bombs). The aircraft was still inside its
shelter, but the crew was already in the cockpit
when the ejection system malfunctioned.
It activated unexpectedly and fired both airmen
out of the aircraft. They struck their heads on
the ceiling of the reinforced shelter and did
not survive. The aircraft was damaged in the
incident. The pilot was 27 years old and the
navigator 40. The older of the two was identified
as Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Korkin, a veteran
of the Russian campaign in Syria. All of this
information comes from Russian sources, so it
is certainly not Ukrainian propaganda.
Just two days later, on Tuesday, December 9,
another serious accident occurred. Near the
village of Ivankovo in the Ivanovo region, 300
km northeast of Moscow, a four-engine Antonov
An-22 transport aircraft with registration
RF-08832 and the name Vasiliy Semenenko
broke apart in flight. It belonged to the 8th
Military Transport Aviation Regiment and,
according to some sources, was undergoing
a test flight after a major overhaul. Its end
was captured on video, which shows the
rear section of the fuselage breaking off just
behind the wings, after which the aircraft
crashed into the Uvodskoye reservoir. All
eight people on board were killed. They were
Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Shmakov, Captain
Roman Korotkov, Senior Warrant Officers Igor
Ishkhanov and Alexei Dorofeyev, and further
Dmitry Yatsenko, Kiril Vakulenko, Igor Belyakov
and Alexei Tyksheyev without specified ranks.
Two more losses were caused by saboteurs
on the night of Saturday, December 20 through
Sunday, December 21, when they set fire to
two Su-30SM fighters at the Lipetsk airbase.
One of them carried tail number “Red 82”
and registration RF-81740, and the other tail
number “Red 12” and probably registration
RF-95838. The saboteurs ignited fires in the
engine intakes. The final result of the attack is
not known, but at the very least both aircraft
were damaged.
The attack on the Il-38N maritime patrol aircraft in
Yeisk enabled the subsequent attack on the port of
Novorossiysk.
The explosion in the port of Novorossiysk was
captured by Ukrainians via hacked security cameras.
Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Korkin was one of the two
Russian airmen who died on December 7, when the
ejection system fired them out of a Su-34 bomber in
-
side a shelter during preparations for a combat sortie.
Low-quality images documenting the arson attack
on a pair of Russian Su-30SM fighters at the Lipetsk
base.
The final moments of the An-22, which broke apart mid
-
-air on December 9. Eight Russian airmen lost their lives.
UKRAINE
INFO Eduard
39
February 2026