Russian Black Sea Fleet is a sitting duck for Ukraine

5 months ago
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Ukraine said its weekend strikes on Russia's Black Sea Fleet were more successful than it previously disclosed, with damage to two additional vessels. Ukraine's navy said that it struck two of Russia's large landing ships, the Yamal and the Azov, in occupied Crimea in an attack on last Saturday.
But in an update on Tuesday, it said it also damaged two other ships, "the spy ship Ivan Khurs and the Konstantin Olshansky large landing ship."
A Russian flotilla just announced by Moscow will be vulnerable to Ukrainian drones which have wreaked havoc on Russia's Black Sea Fleet, British defense officials have said.
The UK said last month that 25% of Russia's vessels in the Black Sea had been sunk, damaged, or destroyed. This is despite Ukraine not having a functional navy of its own.
The UK's defense minister said, after Ukraine's first updates about the attack, that the Black Sea Fleet was "functionally inactive."
In its update, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said that Russia wants to prevent Ukrainian forces from undertaking cross-river operations like the one which has established the bridgehead at Krynky, where both sides have lost large numbers of troops and equipment. The flotilla is likely to "decouple river patrolling functions from the Black Sea Fleet" the British defense officials said.
However, Russia's new flotilla could face the same fate as the vessels of Russia's prestigious fleet which has been forced further east to Novorossiysk due to Ukrainian drone strikes which have targeted vessels and infrastructure in and around Sevastopol.
"The Dnipro Flotilla will likely be vulnerable to Ukrainian uncrewed surface vehicles which have been effective in destroying Russian vessels operating in the Black Sea," said the update, which tends to emphasize Ukrainian gains and Russian losses.

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