Russian ships may attack Ukraine with missiles from Mediterranean

The Russian army is technically capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles from missile carriers in the Mediterranean. However, to do so, they must violate NATO airspace.

Dmytro Pletenchuk, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, stated the information during a teletho.

"Technically, we are within the strike range of those ships in the Mediterranean. However, it's unlikely that Russia would dare to use them," Pletenchuk stated.

He added that if Russia decides to launch missiles from the Mediterranean, they would have to pass through the airspace of NATO member states.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces have destroyed a total of 28 Russian ships, including the submarine Rostov-na-Donu. Among the destroyed ships are three cruise missile carriers, a submarine, and two new ships, specifically the newest ones - the Askold and Cyclone. These vessels represent various classes, ranging from a flagship missile cruiser to missile boats and units designed for deploying small numbers of troops and patrolling, such as the Raptor, Serna, and Tunets.

At present, Russian navy officials should be very worried about the future of the Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine is taking out the fleet’s warships faster than Russia can build or reinforce them with ships from other regional fleets. As long as Turkey blocks warships from passing through the Bosporus Strait connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea, the only way for the Russians to reinforce the shrinking Black Sea Fleet is to transfer smaller vessels to the Black Sea by river—or to build them in Black Sea shipyards. It’s not for no reason that, in April, Ukrainian commandos sabotaged the Russian missile corvette Serpukhov in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. The Buyan-class corvette was one of the few Russian warships small enough to travel to the Black Sea via canals, the Volga River, the Don River and then the Sea of Azov. After all, the Ukrainians have been developing—or acquiring from their foreign allies—an array of long-range anti-ship munitions. The United Kingdom and France have given Ukraine Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG air-launched cruise missiles that travel as far as 155 miles; the United States has donated several models of ground-launched Army Tactical Missile Systems rockets.