Sri Lanka, Aug. 29 -- Ukrainian Navy's reconnaissance ship Simferopol, which was reportedly the largest ship commissioned by the country in over a decade, has been hit and sunk in a naval drone strike, the Russian Defence Ministry announced on Thursday.

The Laguna-class, medium-sized ship, designed for radio, electronic, radar, and optical reconnaissance, was struck in the delta of the River Danube, part of which is located in Ukraine's Odessa Region, a Defence Ministry statement said, RT reported.

This was the first successful use of a sea drone to take out a Ukrainian Navy vessel, as per a TASS report citing a UAV expert, the RT added.

Ukrainian authorities confirmed that the vessel has been hit.

The attack killed one crew member an...