The Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet has been forced to rebase almost all of its combat-ready ships from Crimea, and its main naval hub is becoming difficult to control due to attacks from Kyiv, announced the head of the Ukrainian Navy.
Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa stated that Ukrainian missile and aircraft attacks had caused severe damage to the Sevastopol base, a logistical center for repairs, maintenance, training, and ammunition storage, among other essential functions for Russia.
“These facilities were established over many decades, perhaps even centuries. And it is clear that they are now losing this center,” Neizhpapa said.
It is reported that Ukraine has used unmanned naval ships filled with explosives to target Russian ships and has struck fleet facilities and other military targets in Crimea with Storm Shadow and ATACM missiles.
“Almost all of the main combat-ready ships have been relocated by the enemy from the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, and the ships are kept in Novorossiisk and some of them are kept in the Sea of Azov,” said the head of the Ukrainian Navy.
As Neizhpapa points out, Russia’s Novorossiisk naval base on the eastern coast of the Black Sea lacks the extensive facilities of Crimea’s Sevastopol, which served as a storage and loading site for cruise missiles used by its warships to launch airstrikes in Ukraine, writes yahoonews.
Alongside strategic bombers, warships and submarines with missiles play a significant role in Russia’s regular long-range missile attacks.
Neizhpapa said that Ukraine had destroyed or damaged 27 naval vessels, including five that he said were destroyed by sea mines deployed by Ukrainian naval drones near Sevastopol Bay.
Otherwise, the Black Sea Fleet is now primarily used for logistics, a small amount of coastal territorial control, and launching cruise missiles.
However, the head of the navy declined to reveal Ukraine’s future plans in the Black Sea.
Nevertheless, it is known that operations there have allowed Ukraine to establish and secure its own transport corridor “without Russia’s blessing,” after Moscow withdrew from the wartime food export agreement.
With the increase in naval drone attacks, Russian warships do not enter the northwestern part of the Black Sea in an area of nearly 25,000 square kilometers.
