Ukraine challenges Russian naval dominance in Black Sea
The Russian Black Sea Fleet maintains its combat capability despite attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), reported Nikolai Patrushev, assistant to the president of Russia and chairman of the Maritime Board, in an interview with Kommersant. He noted that he personally witnessed this while observing the forces' combat service.
Patrushev stated that their Black Sea fleet has remained unharmed, even with Kyiv's aggressive actions supported by NATO specialists.
Putin's maritime power?
He also urged not to believe Western media reports suggesting that the fleet has suffered significant losses as a result of AFU attacks. According to Patrushev, the army's positions in the Black Sea have not been weakened. Russia "firmly maintains its status as one of the world's leading naval powers," with nuclear deterrence of opponents being one of its tasks.
After the start of the war, Ukraine, without its own fleet, managed with the help of missiles and sea drones to damage or destroy at least 27 ships and one submarine of the Russian Navy. Of the 15 ships and landing crafts that were in the Black Sea in February 2022, only five remain fully operational. Among the damaged landing ships were: "Olenegorskiy Gornyak," "Minsk," "Saratov," "Novocherkassk," and "Caesar Kunikov." The flagship cruiser – "Moskva," was also destroyed.
In September 2023, the AFU conducted a missile attack on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Additionally, they reclaimed Snake Island and destroyed the observation system of the Russian fleet on drilling platforms known as "Boyko towers" in the northwestern part of the Black Sea. According to Captain of the First Rank and head of military programs at the Center for Global Strategy "Strategy XXI," Pavlo Lakiychuk, the Black Sea Fleet lost 75% of its ability to perform operational tasks.
Forcing Russians to retreat
All this allowed Ukraine to reduce the threat of landing and missile strikes from Russian ships and create maritime corridors to export agricultural products.
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation was forced to withdraw the surviving military units from Crimea, where they had been based for 240 years. Currently, Russia patrols the Black Sea using submarines and conducts exercises in the Sea of Azov, which it considers less dangerous.
At the end of October, Senator Dmitry Rogozin admitted that the Black Sea Fleet had to "relocate" because its large ships "became just big targets for unmanned enemy boats."
The ships were moved to Novorossiysk, but they were also recently evacuated from there due to threats from long-range Western missiles. The fleet's base in this city is within the range of British Storm Shadow missiles, which Ukraine has in its arsenal.
In February 2024, the Strategic Communications Centre of the Ukrainian army (StratCom) announced that since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have immobilized about 33% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's ships.
