Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been forced to redeploy almost all of its combat-capable warships from occupied Crimea elsewhere. Its main naval center was rendered ineffective by Kiev's attacks. This was stated by the commander of the fleet of Ukraine, quoted by Reuters.
Vice Admiral Oleksiy Nezhpapa said strikes by Ukrainian missiles and naval drones had caused heavy damage to the Sevastopol base, a logistics hub for repair, maintenance, training and ammunition storage, among other important functions for Russia. In his words, Russia is thus losing the important naval center.
Almost all major warships have been moved by the enemy from the main base of the Black Sea Fleet and are stored in Novorossiysk, and some of them are stored in the Sea of Azov, he added. Russia's Novorossiysk naval base on its eastern Black Sea coast does not have the extensive facilities of Crimea's Sevastopol, which serves as a storage and loading site for cruise missiles used by its warships to launch airstrikes against Ukraine, Nezhpapa stressed.
More than 28 months after Russia's full-scale invasion, Kiev has delivered a series of stinging blows to Moscow in the Black Sea. Ukraine, which has no large warships at its disposal, has used unmanned warships packed with explosives to attack Russian ships and has struck naval facilities and other military targets in Crimea with Storm Shadow and ATACM missiles.
Neizhpapa said that Ukraine destroyed or damaged 27 naval vessels. Five of them were destroyed by sea mines laid by Ukrainian naval drones near the Bay of Sevastopol.
Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Before February 2022, Russia used its Black Sea Fleet, which consists of dozens of warships, to project power in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
In a sign of their more defensive posture, some Russian warships that rarely entered the Sea of Azov east of Crimea are now stationed there regularly. The Russian Black Sea Fleet is now primarily used for logistics, small-scale coastal control, and for launching Kalibr cruise missiles. against Ukraine.
Ukraine's operations in the Black Sea have allowed it to create and secure its own shipping lane without Russia's blessing after Moscow pulled out of a wartime food export deal brokered by the United Nations last year.