Russians Showed the Varshavyanka Submarine After a Ukrainian Drone Strike, but Concealed the Impact Site

The Russians showed the Varshavyanka class 636.3 submarine after a Ukrainian drone strike on December 15.

Propagandists of the Russian TV channel Zvezdanews published the video.

Captain 1st Rank Alexei Rulev, the head of the Black Sea Fleet’s press service, notes that “not a single ship or submarine of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as their crews, was damaged and are serving in the normal mode.”

But the camera operator deliberately avoids showing the submarine’s stern.

As a reminder, the Ukrainian drone hit near the submarine’s stern, where the rudder and vertical rudder, stern horizontal rudder, and propeller are located.

The Russians likely concealed the consequences of the damage from their leadership to avoid responsibility for the loss of the submarine’s combat capability. A criminal case may even be opened in Russia for negligence.

The course of events

The strike on the 636.3 Varshavyanka submarine was a joint operation of the 13th Main Department of Military Counterintelligence of the SSU and the Ukrainian Navy.

The blown-up boat was forced to stay in the port of Novorossiysk because of special operations by Sea Baby surface marine drones. These drones pushed Russian ships and submarines out of Sevastopol Bay in temporarily occupied Crimea.

Later, satellite images of the aftermath of the strike on Russian Varshavyanka were released.

A @Planet satellite image of Novorossiysk taken today shows the aftermath of the Ukrainian underwater drone attack on a Russian Kilo-class submarine. Still hard to conduct a precise BDA, but at least we can see that the explosion occurred approximately 20 m from the vessel. pic.twitter.com/c9ApUASHAN

— Mark Krutov (@kromark) December 16, 2025

The image shows a damaged pier, but due to the image quality, it is difficult to determine the extent of damage to the submarine itself.

Although Mark Krutov claims the explosion occurred 20 meters from the boat, it is worth noting that the submarine’s stern can extend 10-15 meters underwater.

The picture also shows that the Russians towed away the nearby submarine, while the damaged one was left in place, probably because it could not be towed.