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The night before, the naval drone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reportedly attacked the Sheskharis oil and gas terminal in the Black Sea.
The attack took place on the night of Friday, November 18, near Russian city of Novorossiysk. According to the local experts, the oil terminal was slightly damaged, the attack did not affect the performance of the systems. The Sheskharis transshipment complex loads oil from the fields in Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan for shipment abroad.
The wreckage of the unmanned surface vehicle (USV) revealed that the attack was carried out with the same systems as the attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol at the end of October. Earlier the same USV crashed on the shore near Sevastopol.
There are no official comments on the incident yet.
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Marine kamikaze drones, which Ukrainian media call “Mikola-3”, are based on the US MANTAS T-12, which came to Ukraine back in April this year. The number of USVs was not announced, but the total cost of deliveries approached $ 800 million. The Ukrainian USVs are 5.5-meter boats with a gross weight of up to one ton, with a maximum speed of 80 km/h. They can carry out up to 200 kg of explosives, but the payload mass can vary depending on the distance of the targets.
The USV could be launched from the Ukrainian ports in the Odessa or Nikolaev regions. At the same time, Ukrainian and NATO servicemen could use again a civilian vessel in the Black Sea. Recall that the grain agreement, according to which ships freely leave the Ukrainian Black Sea ports continues to operate. Moreover, the deal has been extended for 120 days.
