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crew members who died during his defection
were also revealed. They were Captain
Chushbacht Tursunov and Lieutenant Nikita
Kiryanov. Kuzminov's killing indicates that
Ukrainian efforts to persuade other Russian
pilots to defect are likely to be ineffective.
Ships at the Bottom
During the period under review, the
destruction of the Russian Black Sea Fleet
continued using naval drones. On Thursday,
February 1, a Tarantul-class missile corvette,
Ivanovec, was sent to the bottom, The ship
was attacked by a pack of Magura V5 drones,
which harassed her like voracious predators.
Gradually, two drones hit its rear section,
likely disabling its propulsion. Subsequently,
one drone caused a large hole on the port
side, into which the fourth drone then flew and
exploded inside the ship. The video also shows
an explosion on the starboard side. Thus, the
corvette was hit by at least five drones. At the
end of the video, published by the Ukrainian
military intelligence GUR, only the silhouette
of the sinking ship protruding vertically above
the water is visible.
Subsequently, on Wednesday, February
14, the same way, the landing ship Cézar
Kunikov was destroyed off the coast of Crimea.
It was carrying cargo from Novorossiysk
to Sevastopol when it was tracked down by
a swarm of Magura V5 drones. After several
explosions, the ship overturned and sank.
The ship belonged to the Ropucha class and
sank exactly 81 years after the death of Major
Cézar Kunikov, after whom it was named.
He had been fatally wounded in the battles for
Novorossiysk and died on February 14, 1943.
The Mi-8AMTŠ helicopter with registration RF-04428 and tail number "red 62", in which Russian pilot Captain
Maxim Kuzminov defected to the Ukrainian side on August 9, 2023.
Maxim Kuzminov was shot dead in Spain in February.
Lieutenant Nikita Kiryanov, who died during Kuzminov's defection.
Captain Chushbacht Tursunov, who died during Kuzminov's defection.
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April 2024