In just one week, the Ukrainian army has made the Russian Black Sea Fleet smaller and weaker than it was before the invasion.
The Ukrainian Navy was left without any after the flooding of its flagship large warship. But that doesn't stop them from smashing Russian forces in the Black Sea. Of course, with the help of Ukrainian ground forces.
Forbes writes, recalling that on Monday the TB-2 drone “Bayraktar”, which belonged to the Ukrainian Navy, hit rockets on two patrol boats in Russia, severely damaging or and even destroying them. So you can safely add two 17-meter Raptor-class boats to the list of Russian ships that Ukrainians have either sunk or damaged enough so that they can no longer take part in the war.
Russia's naval losses, of course, also include the Moscow missile cruiser, which sank two Ukrainian Neptune missiles launched on April 13 from the coast. This ship was the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which consists of about two dozen ships. Three weeks earlier, on March 24, a large Tapir-class landing craft suddenly exploded in the port of occupied Berdyansk. The cause of the fire was an accurate hit of a Ukrainian missile “Point-U”, after which a chain reaction began. So the Russian ship “Saratov” sank very quickly. Several landing craft near him were also damaged and lost crew members. Attacks on Russian airborne forces have had a major impact on Russia's wider invasion of Ukraine, which began with missile strikes on the night of February 23-24.
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Having lost three large landing ships, as well as the cruiser Moscow with its long-range missiles, the Russian Black Sea Fleet can no longer deliver significant Russian ground forces or protect them from air and missile attacks. This almost certainly means that Russia can no longer open a coastal front along the western Ukrainian coast to attack the strategically important port of Odessa, which remains Ukraine's main strategic access to the sea.
“This could liberate the Odessa garrison with its reserve 5th Panzer Brigade and undamaged T-72 tank battalions to support the Ukrainian campaign in the east near the Russian-occupied port of Kherson since early March,” the article reads.
“Moscow”, “Saratov” and other landing craft are the heaviest naval losses in Russia, but not the only ones. On March 22 or earlier, Ukrainian troops in Mariupol struck a Raptor-class boat with at least one Competition anti-tank missile while a Russian ship was patrolling the coast. Thus, two large Russian ships sank, two more were damaged, and three patrol boats were lined up, if not destroyed. And before the invasion, this regional Russian fleet included only 7 large ships – frigates and corvettes plus the cruiser “Moscow”, as well as fifty landing ships, 6 or 7 Raptor boats and about six diesel submarines.
It is important to remember that Turkey controls the Bosphorus, which connects the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Ankara strongly supports Ukraine's independence and equips it with Bayraktar TB-2 drones. The Turkish side also does not allow the Russian fleet to send additional vessels to the waters at a time when the Black Sea Fleet is suffering from losses. So in just one week, thanks to Ukrainian efforts, the Russian Black Sea Fleet has become smaller and weaker. Until the war is over and Turkey reopens the Bosphorus, there is no chance of rebuilding the fleet. The Ukrainian strike on Russian boats on Monday illustrates the plight of Russia's Black Sea region. Obviously, Russia can no longer protect the ships it still has from the sky.
Read also: Russia has intensified its fleet in the Black Sea after the attack on Snake Island
The cruiser “Moscow” with its anti-aircraft radars and S-300 missiles on board was theoretically the main defender of the fleet from air attacks. But it turned out that the ship could not even defend itself. Now the security of the Russian Black Sea Fleet depends on three frigates of the Petrel class. These ships are among the newest in Russia. In fact, the Russian defense industry is currently unable to build larger ships due to production problems or a ban on the import of large ship engines.
But three frigates: “Admiral Grigorovich”, “Admiral Essen” and “Admiral Makarov” – are armed with “Buk” missiles with a range of up to 30 miles. On board each of them are 24 such missiles. Even with the support of Earth-sky fighters and batteries in the occupied Crimea, these frigates cannot “umbrella” the entire Black Sea Fleet, which stretches for 300-400 miles along the coast from Odessa to Mariupol. Ukraine has demonstrated its ability to exploit gaps in Russia's air defenses at sea.
Theoretically, the Bayraktar TB-2 drone is a small but well-armed target. And a well-prepared and trained fleet must be able to detect and destroy them. But if one Ukrainian Bayraktar can sink a pair of Russian patrol boats, the question arises as to what the combined forces of Kyiv, which include other drones, Neptune missiles, Point-U missiles and anti-tank missiles, will soon do with the Black Sea. the fleet of the Russian Federation. And anti-ship missiles from Great Britain and the United States have not arrived yet.
“The Russian fleet loses in the naval war to Ukraine, an enemy that does not even have ships,” the newspaper writes. On May 1, it became known that Russia has intensified its fleet in the Black Sea after the attack on Snake Island. Therefore, the threat of missile strikes on Ukrainian territory from the sea remains.
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