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On Sept. 11, the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (HUR) announced that its special forces had carried out an operation near Novorossiysk in which they tracked and attacked a high-value Russian Black Sea Fleet vessel — likely the Spasatel Ilyin, a multifunctional rescue ship valued at around $60 million. According to HUR, Russia has only four such ships.
HUR said the strike was carried out by a Ukrainian combat UAV, likely a first-person view (FPV) drone, which hit the bridge area containing the ship’s navigation and communications equipment. The attack also destroyed the vessel’s “electronic reconnaissance equipment…and the ship was disabled, requiring costly repairs.”
At the time of the strike, Spasatel Ilyin was conducting electronic reconnaissance and patrolling approaches to Novorossiysk Bay, where Russia has concentrated the remnants of its Black Sea Fleet, according to HUR’s announcement.
Such ships are also active outside the Black Sea. As open source intelligence (OSINT) maritime analyst “auonsson” told The Insider, similar Russian vessels patrol the waters between Denmark and Germany, where they jam signals. Jonas Kjellén, a researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, explained that even rescue ships can be useful to the Russian military:
“All kinds of ships belonging to the Russian Navy can indeed conduct special missions of different types (signals intelligence, for instance),” Kjellén said. “But I would look more for equipment that is temporarily placed/installed on the ship. That said, I do not in any way exclude the possibility that Russia would let one of its offshore tugs do patrol missions and even carry equipment on board for purposes such as signals intelligence or even jamming.”
Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service told The Insider it could not answer questions about a specific vessel but said that “it is commonly known that Russian jamming takes place in the Baltic Sea region and elsewhere, targeting the communication and GPS signals of both military and civilian ships and aircraft.”
Denmark’s Defense Command, in a written reply, said that “out of operational concerns, the [command] does not wish to respond to the question about potential jamming of GPS-signals in the Danish waters.”