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Ukraine has used naval drones and missiles to wage war against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
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A campaign of highly effective attacks has prompted Moscow to move many of its vulnerable assets.
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Satellite images have captured the exodus of Russian naval assets from Crimea to other ports.
Armed with exploding naval drones and long-range missiles, Ukraine has managed to push Russia’s Black Sea Fleet away from its long-held headquarters on the occupied Crimean peninsula to other bases far away.
A series of high-profile Ukrainian attacks on the port of Sevastopol and Russian warships last year led to the withdrawal of Russian warships to bases in the port cities of Feodosia, on the other side of Crimea, and Novorossiysk, in Russia, as Moscow sought better solutions. protection of its naval assets.
Newly released satellite images captured by BlackSky, a company that provides real-time information in space, and obtained by Business Insider, reveal the dispersal of the Black Sea Fleet – one of Ukraine’s defining successes in the war. Kiev, which has no real navy of its own, has inflicted shocking losses on Russian warships while opening a crucial maritime corridor to help support its economy.
Ukraine is relying on its fleet of homemade drones and missiles to sink, destroy or damage at least 24 Russian ships in the Black Sea, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week.
These attacks span the entire war, but the exodus of the Black Sea Fleet did not really get underway until September. That month, Ukraine carried out two separate attacks on Sevastopol, using Western-made cruise missiles to bomb a key shipyard and fleet headquarters.
The British Ministry of Defense said in October that increasing threats to Sevastopol – as evidenced by the previous attacks on the shipyard and headquarters – were likely forcing Moscow to spread its naval operations across the Black Sea and away from the battered west coast of Crimea.
BlackSky said it generated tens of thousands of automated detections of military vessels between January 2022 and April 2024, giving it insight into the extent of the Russian withdrawal.
In the months following the attacks in Sevastopol, BlackSky found that detections at the port had dropped by 18%.
Meanwhile, it recorded a 23% increase in detections in Feodosia and a 22% increase in detections in Novorossiysk – just under 160 kilometers and just over 320 kilometers away from Sevastopol, respectively. These figures underline a notable departure from western Crimea to other locations that may be more difficult for Ukrainian missiles and drones to reach.
A series of satellite images taken in the months before and after the damaging attacks in Sevastopol further highlight the declining presence of the Black Sea Fleet in the city’s port, as warships were dispersed across the region to Feodosia and Novorossiysk.
BlackSky also said it has observed an increase in apparent maritime security measures at the entrances to ports where Russian ships were docked, including in Sevastopol, despite the decline in naval activity there. Western intelligence agencies and analysts have identified these defenses as nets, floating booms and moored ships.
With a reduced presence of Russian warships around Sevastopol and the western coast of Crimea, Ukraine has in recent weeks resorted to attacks on smaller targets such as patrol vessels and tugboats in an attempt to continue inflicting naval losses on Moscow.
The battle for the Black Sea has been a bright spot for Ukraine amid the sluggish campaign on the ground. Russia has failed to consistently defend itself against this innovative and asymmetric style of warfare, and officials in Kiev have vowed to continue this highly effective campaign of missile and naval drone attacks.
A general in Ukraine’s security service, who has carried out naval drone strikes on Russian warships and infrastructure, previously told BI that Kiev not only displaced Moscow’s naval assets but also destroyed them in the process – destroying some of the strategic advantages emphasizes. of the campaign.
“We managed to unblock the grain corridor and suppress the activity of Russian rocket launchers firing from the sea into the territory of Ukraine,” Brigadier General Ivan Lukashevich said, adding: “Forcing the enemy to get out of the Black Sea To flee was the goal we sought, and it was achieved.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
