Press
The Ukrainian Navy claims to have knocked out four Russian ships in one day this week, thereby putting Russia in distress.
Kyiv – Since the beginning of the war in the Ukraine has Russia According to Ukrainian estimates, a good third of its Black Sea fleet has been lost, including that already in April 2022 sunk flagship “Moskva”. The Ukrainian explained this marine-Spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk, who spread the news last week that Ukrainian armed forces had carried out four attacks in one day with Neptune missiles specialized on maritime targets.
Among the ships recently hit was the landing ship “Konstantin Olshansky,” which was captured by Russia in 2014 and, according to a report by the television channel n-tv, was only in the Bay of Sevastopol for nine years and served there as a spare parts warehouse before being restored for use in the war had been. The other ships involved in the attack this week, according to a report by the US newspaper Newsweek of Neptune rockets Two of the most important large landing ships in the Russian fleet, the “Yamal” and the “Azov”, as well as the Russian reconnaissance ship “Ivan Khurs” are said to have been hit.
Ukraine War: How Ukraine's Small Navy Fights Back Against the Russian Fleet
The fact that Ukraine has actually managed an astonishing number of hits on Russian warships confirms loudly Newsweek most recently the Ukrainian open source service Molfar, which specializes in military observation. According to its data, numerous large and small Russian ships and boats were successfully attacked between February 24, 2022 and February 15, 2024. The military leadership is currently talking about 26 ships and boats destroyed, and there could be further damaged military equipment. There is still often only contradictory and difficult to verify data about the losses in the Ukraine war.
According to Pletenchuk, Ukraine's goal is in any case “to expel all military ships of the so-called Russian Federation from the areas of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.” According to Molfar, the destruction of ships would also have the long-term effect of weakening Russia's overall strategy, as it would decimate the possibilities of large-scale attacks from the water. According to Molfar's military experts, the fact that landing ships and patrol boats in particular were hit is a sign of the “high efficiency” of the Ukrainian defense.
Protection through deception: Russia is trying to protect ships from Ukrainian attacks
Ukraine achieved the largest and most symbolic hit to date in the fight against the Russian Navy right at the very beginning of the war, when the Russian flagship “Moskva” was sunk in April 2022 with the help of two Neptune missiles. There are other significant examples of destroyed or damaged warships that are said to have played an important role in Russia's navy Newsweek the landing ships “Saratov”, “Caesar Kunikov” and “Novocherkassk” as well as several attack ships, minesweepers and patrol boats.
In order to minimize its losses on the water, Russia's navy is increasingly resorting to so-called Maskirovka techniques, as the British Ministry of Defense reported last week. To deceive opponents, outlines of ships would be painted onto the pavement on the quays or the bows and sterns of warships would be painted black to make the boats appear smaller. Similar techniques would be used on aircraft. According to British intelligence estimates, these attempts were largely unsuccessful: “Despite these attempts at concealment, Russian aircraft in the air are still vulnerable to conventional shoot-downs and Russian ships are also still vulnerable during operations in the Black Sea,” said the British report Ministry. (saka)
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