Russia extends improvised ship defenses to Baltic Fleet
Russia’s Baltic Fleet has fitted several of its warships with improvised netting and irregular camouflage patterns as makeshift protection against drone strikes, according to footage circulating from a recent fleet exercise.
The images show at least three vessels equipped with different combinations of netting, deformation-pattern paint and other visual countermeasures on their bridges, radar housings and weapons systems.
The netting and camouflage now visible on multiple Baltic Fleet vessels are not part of a standardized Russian navy protection program. Similar improvised measures, including cage-like screens, netting and disruptive paint intended to interfere with visual and optical drone targeting, have appeared on Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla vessels over the past two years, often applied unevenly across different ships within the same fleet.
The measures follow the first confirmed Ukrainian drone strike on a Baltic Fleet installation. Ukrainian drones struck the corvette Boikiy, a Project 20380 vessel, while it sat in a dry dock at the Kronstadt naval base near St. Petersburg on the morning of June 3.
Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, announced the strike and published video of the attack, saying two Baltic Fleet ships were hit; he did not name the second vessel. Pro-Russian military blogger Boris Rozhin confirmed a drone struck the Boikiy’s superstructure, and video circulating on social media showed a fire at Kronstadt following the attack.
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not comment on the reported strikes, and the extent of the damage to the Boikiy has not been confirmed. The Boikiy had spent 2025 escorting tankers from Russia’s so-called shadow fleet through European waters, according to Brovdi.
Russia’s naval forces have lost multiple warships to Ukrainian drone and unmanned surface vessel attacks since 2022, primarily in the Black Sea. The Black Sea Fleet withdrew much of its surface combat force from Crimea’s western ports following repeated strikes by Ukrainian Neptune missiles, Magura-class unmanned surface vessels and aerial drones. The June 3 strike on the Boikiy was the first confirmed Ukrainian drone attack specifically on a Baltic Fleet installation, according to NV.ua, though
The Insider reported the Boikiy was the third Baltic Fleet vessel damaged by any means since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Source: Defence Blog
