Russia ordered new defenses meant to stop its navy getting humiliated by Ukrainian drones

• Russia's defense minister visited the HQ of Russia's troubled Black Sea Fleet.
• Ukraine has scored a series of striking victories, sinking powerful warships with sea drones.

Russia's defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, issued new orders on Monday meant to stop so many Russian ships from being sunk by Ukraine.

Russia's Defence Ministry on Sunday announced that Shoigu had visited the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters in occupied Crimea.

There, Shoigu was updated on Ukrainian attacks on the fleet and ordered the fleet to conduct "training for personnel every day," the update said.

It was to cover "how to repel attacks from the air and by uncrewed boats," reported the AFP newswire.

He also ordered vessels to be fitted with extra weaponry, including large-caliber machine guns, to help repel attacks.

The visit comes in the wake of a series of audacious sea-drone and missile attacks by Ukraine that devastated the fleet.

It is unclear whether the new measures will help — footage of a previous sea-drone attack showed Russians attempting to counter them without much success.

Ukraine claims to have sunk or disabled around a third of Russia's fleet, which was once the Black Sea's dominant naval power.

It has been an unusual bright spot for Ukraine, which is heavily outmatched by Russia on land and in the air.

The latest success came on March 6, when Ukraine said it used sea drones to sink the Sergei Kotov, a Russian patrol ship.

The sinking provoked the fury of Russian nationalist bloggers who accused the Kremlin of incompetence.

Mounting losses forced Russia to relocate vessels from Sevastopol to other, smaller ports on the Russian coast, such as Novorossiysk, which are further from the reach of Ukrainian drones and missiles.

The Kremlin is said to have fired the fleet's commanding officer in response to the defeats, in keeping with other times it has removed senior figures without announcing it formally.

Shoigu's visit appeared to be an attempt to shore up morale.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, assessed that Shoigu was setting himself up to either claim credit if the new measures prove successful or "blame other commanders" should they fail.