Ukrainian Navy Sank the Russian Ship Izumrud with a Sargan-3000 Unmanned Surface Vehicle

Ukrainian naval personnel sank the 2nd-rank border patrol ship Izumrud using a Sargan-3000 unmanned maritime system near Novorossiysk. There are fatalities and injuries among the ship’s crew.

This was reported on the Facebook page of the Ukrainian Navy.

The vessel is known for having opened fire on the Ukrainian small artillery boat Berdyansk during the 2018 aggression in the Black Sea.

It is worth noting that, while attempting to block Ukrainian boats and a tugboat in the strait at that time, the border patrol ship collided with another FSB vessel, the Don. Both sustained hull damage at that time.

The border guard ship also patrolled near Russian dredgers during illegal sand extraction in Ukraine’s territorial waters that same year.

The Izumrud was built at the Almaz ship repair yard in St. Petersburg and launched in August 2013; it entered service with the coast guard of the FSB Border Guard Directorate in Crimea on May 1, 2015.

The PSKR Izumrud is equipped with a helicopter pad. It was 62.5 meters long, had a displacement of approximately 630–750 metric tons, and a maximum speed of up to 27 knots (approximately 50 km/h).