Of course it does. Russia is spending almost half of the government budget on war, something like 10% to 20% of GDP. A large % of that goes to buying weapons and parts from foreign countries (eg drones). Russia pays for that through exports, especially oil.

Wars at this scale are always a question of economics. Crush the economy, stop the war.

The crew of those ships and the ships themselves are valid military targets. In this case it was nature that ultimately sunk them. But it would have been equally valid to use a drone to kill the crew.