- The Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet has been forced to relocate almost all of its combat-ready warships from occupied Crimea to other locations.
- Although Russia has the advantage on land, Ukraine has dealt a heavy blow to Russian forces in the Black Sea.
- Ukrainian Navy commander, Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, said the upcoming delivery of US-made F-16 fighter jets will enable Ukraine to challenge Russia’s “total dominance” of the skies over the Black Sea.
The Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet has been forced to relocate almost all of its combat-ready warships from occupied Crimea and its main naval base has been crippled by attacks from Kiev, the commander of the Ukrainian navy said.
Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neidzhapa said the Ukrainian missile and naval drone attack had caused significant damage to the Sevastopol base, a logistics hub for repairs, maintenance, training and ammunition storage that serves one of Russia’s key functions.
“They have been building it for decades, maybe centuries, and now it is clear that they are losing this base,” Neizhpapa told Reuters in a rare interview in the port city of Odessa ahead of Ukrainian Navy Day on Sunday.
Ukrainian forces withdraw from strategic city stronghold as Russian forces close in
More than 28 months after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kiev continues to deal crushing blows to Moscow in the Black Sea, even as Ukrainian ground forces are outnumbered across a vast front.
Ukraine, which has no major warships, has used drones laden with explosives to attack Russian ships and has struck Russian fleet facilities in Crimea and other military targets with Storm Shadow and ATACM missiles.
“Almost all of the major combat-ready ships have been removed by the enemy from the main bases of the Black Sea Fleet and are being stored in Novorossiysk, and some are being stored in the Sea of Azov,” he said.
Commander of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, poses for an interview and photograph in Odessa, Ukraine, June 25, 2024, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Reuters/Tom Balmforth)
He said Russia’s Novorossiysk naval base on the eastern Black Sea coast does not have large facilities like Sevastopol in Crimea, which served as a storage and loading site for cruise missiles used by Russian warships in bombing Ukraine.
“I hear they are currently trying to solve this problem in Novorossiysk,” he said, describing it as a “major issue” for the fleet.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on Neizhpapa’s remarks.
President Vladimir Putin told naval commanders last month that Russia’s fleet has been replenished in recent years and a major modernization is underway, including measures to strengthen and “improve the fleet’s combat stability.”
In addition to strategic bombers and land-based missiles, missile-equipped warships and submarines also play an important role in Russia’s regular long-range missile attacks.
Neizhpapa said Ukraine had destroyed or damaged 27 naval vessels, five of which were destroyed by mines laid by Ukrainian naval drones near Sevastopol Bay.
Moscow seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. By February 2022, Russia was extending its influence into the Mediterranean and Middle East using its Black Sea Fleet of dozens of warships.
Throughout the Ukraine war, Turkey, which controls the Black Sea straits, has not allowed warships to enter or leave the area.
Defensive Posture
Neizhpapa said Russian warships that rarely entered the Sea of Azov east of Crimea were now regularly stationed there in a sign of a more defensive posture for the Russian military.
Ten Russian warships were stationed in the Sea of Azov as of June 27, but zero so far in 2023, according to surveillance data collected by the Ukrainian navy and provided to Reuters.
The Black Sea Fleet is currently used primarily for logistics, small-scale territorial control along the coast, and launching Kalibr cruise missiles into Ukraine, he said.
He declined to say what Ukraine’s future plans for the Black Sea might be.
The Black Sea activities have allowed Ukraine to establish and secure its own maritime routes without Russian approval after Russia withdrew from a U.N.-brokered war food export agreement last year.
The counterattack began when Ukraine’s coastal defenses were able to repel naval vessels. In April 2022, a Ukrainian anti-ship missile sank the Moskva, flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, in a humiliating blow to the Kremlin.
Neidzhapa said the navy’s drone attacks and attacks would mean Russian warships would not enter an area of about 9,650 square miles in the northwestern Black Sea.
He said the upcoming delivery of US-made F-16 fighter jets would provide a boost in challenging Russia’s “total dominance” of the skies over the Black Sea.
“F-16s with proper armament will be able to ward off Russian fighter jets. The northwestern Black Sea will become almost 100 percent safe, especially for civilian shipping,” he said.
He added that Ukraine would like to expand the maritime corridor, which currently only covers maritime traffic from the three main ports of Odessa, to the ports of Mykolaiv and Kherson, but this is not possible.
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He cited Russia’s control over the Kinburn Spit, which juts out along the route.
In some areas, civilian ships are being accompanied by patrol boats as a mine countermeasure, and air defense forces are covering both ports and corridors, he said.
Cargo volumes passing through the corridor have remained stable over the past six months, with Ukraine operating two convoys per day, down from one in 2023.
