KYIV — Ukraine’s Navy said Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, that one of its uncrewed surface vessels destroyed a Russian unmanned boat in the Black Sea — billing the fight as history’s first naval battle between drone boats — and released video it said showed the engagement, The War Zone, the Kyiv Independent, Ukrinform, and the New York Post reported.

According to the Ukrainian Navy, units of the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR/GUR) detected the Russian USV. A Navy Sargan-3000 unmanned boat fitted with a Kongsberg Protector 12.7 mm remote weapon station then engaged and sank it with machine-gun fire, the service said in statements carried on Telegram and Facebook and quoted by TWZ, Ukrinform, and the Kyiv Independent.

“This is the first naval battle in history between unmanned boats,” the Ukrainian Navy said, in wording TWZ and Ukrinform both cited. The Kyiv Independent rendered the same claim as “the first-ever battle between unmanned naval boats.” The New York Post quoted a related Navy Telegram line: “This marks the first-ever naval engagement between uncrewed surface vessels.”

TWZ described an 81-second Navy video that opens from the Sargan-3000’s onboard camera as the Ukrainian USV acquires the Russian boat, cuts to the Protector gun firing, then switches to an aerial feed as the Russian craft is raked until debris flies and it sinks stern-first. The outlet said the Russian drone boat was not identified and did not appear to be armed. TWZ, the Kyiv Independent, and the Post all said they could not independently verify the Navy’s claim; the Navy did not disclose the exact date or location beyond somewhere in the Black Sea.

The Sargan-3000 — “needlefish” in Ukrainian — was introduced by President Volodymyr Zelensky in April 2026 as a multi-purpose Navy platform that had completed testing and entered service, TWZ reported. Open reporting cited by TWZ puts the craft at roughly 6.9 meters long with a waterjet, a claimed operational radius of up to about 1,600 km, and a payload near 450 kg, with variants carrying machine guns, rockets, FPV drones, electronic warfare gear, or mines. TWZ said the type’s first publicly claimed combat use came in July 2026, when the Navy said a Sargan-3000 sank the Russian FSB border guard ship Izumrud near Novorossiysk.

The episode fits a Black Sea contest that has already pushed both sides deeper into unmanned surface warfare. Ukraine has used kamikaze and armed USVs against Russian ships and infrastructure; Russia has fielded its own drone boats; and Ukraine’s Magura family — operated with HUR — has previously claimed ship and even aircraft kills, TWZ and the Kyiv Independent noted. TWZ cautioned that Saturday’s claimed first was still a gun-armed USV hunting what looked like an unarmed peer, not a duel between two armed drone boats.

Dated Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026: Ukraine claims a Sargan-3000 machine-gunned a Russian unmanned boat in the Black Sea and calls it the first USV-versus-USV kill — video released, independent verification still pending, time and place not fully disclosed.

Sources