Russia protected its fleet from Ukrainian drones using garden netting
The Russian Navy has begun using an unusual method to protect its ships from Ukrainian drones—the ships’ superstructures are being covered with nets similar to garden or mosquito nets.
According to Western analysts, the landing ship “Alexander Shabalin” was spotted in the Baltic Sea while escorting the cargo ship “Mikhail Britnev.”
Photos released show that the ship’s superstructure is covered with a thin green net that resembles ordinary garden netting.
This decision sparked a wave of ridicule even among Russian military bloggers and Telegram channel users. Commentators note that such “protection” is unlikely to stop even light attack drones, let alone the modern drones that Ukraine is actively using to strike Russian military targets.
At the same time, analysts believe that the appearance of such structures indicates something else—the Russian command is taking the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks increasingly seriously.
Similar nets have already been spotted not only on surface ships but also on Russian submarines in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea, and Arctic regions. Recently, similar protective measures were even spotted on strategic nuclear submarines at the Rybachy base of the Pacific Fleet, located approximately 7,400 kilometers from Ukraine.
Experts emphasize that such nets can provide only limited protection against small FPV drones with light warheads, but are practically ineffective against larger strike drones and maritime drones.
Furthermore, modern FPV drones are highly maneuverable, and experienced operators are capable of guiding them through narrow openings or cracks. The Ukrainian military has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to guide drones even inside armored vehicles through open hatches.
“However, the netting serves another purpose: it signals an alarm. A navy that installs a mosquito net on an amphibious assault ship deployed to escort convoys in an area that until recently was considered a relatively safe part of European waters is a navy that understands that the rules of the maritime environment have changed,” analysts note.
According to experts, the emergence of such improvised protective measures demonstrates that even Russian naval bases and ships far from the front lines no longer feel completely safe in the face of the threat posed by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.
This is reported by defence-blog.com.
The day before, Ukrainian drones attacked the Russian ferry “Panagia,” which, according to Russian sources, was being used to transport military cargo from the Krasnodar Krai to the temporarily occupied Crimea.
On the night of Saturday, June 21, drones attacked the port in Kerch in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the “Kavkaz” port in the Krasnodar Krai of the Russian Federation, resulting in fires at the facilities.
In the Dnipro direction, particularly on the temporarily occupied left bank of the Kherson region, Russian troops are increasingly facing supply and logistics challenges. Ukrainian defense forces have intensified pressure on key supply routes, further complicating the movement and delivery of resources to the occupying forces.
A Ukrainian drone attack on targets in the Moscow region on Thursday served as yet another example that, according to CNN, confirms the effectiveness of Ukraine’s strategy of overwhelming Russian air defense systems through the massive use of drones.
