The Ukrainian military claims to have sunk two Russian patrol boats traveling near the Black Sea's Snake Island. Ukrainian officials released footage of what it claims to be evidence of how effective its Turkish-supplied Bayraktar drones are at tracking down and destroying Russian vessels.
Ukraine's defense ministry said that its drones were able to take down two Russian Raptor boats patrolling Snake Island. Russia took control of the island from Ukrainian soldiers, who had famously turned down demands to surrender at the start of the war.
The aerial footage that was released, which was of very low quality and in black and white, seemingly showed the explosion of one of the Russian military vessels. It has not yet been verified if the boats shown in the video are indeed Russian Raptor boats.
Raptor boats, which are able to carry three crew members and up to 20 soldiers, are typically used by the Russians in reconnaissance and landing missions. The boats typically carry heavy machine guns, which may be used during attack missions.
The commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said its new Bayraktar drones are proving to be very effective weapons, and they are now hard at work taking down enemy vehicles.
Snake Island has become one of the symbols of Ukraine's continued defiance against the Russian. At the start of the war, a radio exchange between Ukraine soldiers stationed on the island and a Russian warship became viral. The warship was demanding that the Ukrainian soldiers surrender or else they would bomb the entire island.
The warship involved in the viral exchange, the Moskva, was destroyed in mid-April. Ukraine claims that it was the one that sunk the ship with multiple missile attacks. Russia denies Ukraine's claims, stating that the ship sank because there was a malfunction that caused an explosion on board.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that the long-awaited attempt to evacuate people from a steel mill in Mariupol has already begun. The ICRC said the operation to evacuate those trapped in the massive Azoystal steel complex is being conducted with the help of UN and Russian officials.
The ICRC said that the first group of around 100 people is already being escorted out of the complex and to safety. It added that there is still much work to be done to evacuate all civilians and take them to Ukrainian-controlled areas.