Russian fleet's resilience in Black Sea challenged by Ukraine
- The Russian Black Sea Fleet still retains its combat capability despite attacks from 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 had personally observed this while overseeing the combat service of the forces.
Patrushev stated that their Black Sea fleet has remained unharmed, even with Kyiv's aggressive actions supported by NATO specialists.
Putin's maritime power?
Western media reports suggest the fleet has suffered significant losses due to AFU attacks, claims Patrushev and urges the public not to believe the reports. He said the army's positions in the Black Sea remain strong. Russia "firmly maintains its status as one of the world's leading naval powers," with nuclear deterrence of adversaries as one of its key tasks.
Following the onset of the war, Ukraine, despite lacking its fleet, managed to damage or destroy at least 27 ships and one submarine of the Russian Navy using missiles and sea drones. Only five of the 15 ships and landing crafts in the Black Sea in February 2022 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 launched a missile strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Additionally, they reclaimed Snake Island and dismantled the observation system of the Russian fleet on drilling platforms known as "Boyko towers" in the north-western Black Sea. According to Captain of the First Rank and Head of Military Programmes at the Centre for Global Strategy "Strategy XXI", Pavlo Lakiychuk, the Black Sea Fleet lost 75% of its operational capacity.
Forcing Russians to retreat
All this enabled Ukraine to reduce the threat of landing and missile strikes from Russian ships and establish maritime corridors to export agricultural products.
The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation was compelled to withdraw the remaining 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 regards as less hazardous.
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 falls within the range of British Storm Shadow missiles in Ukraine's 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 immobilised about 33% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's ships.
