Russian naval retreat: Black Sea cleared of warships

Russian ships have left the Black Sea, the Ukrainian navy reports in a communiqué on Telegram. Ukrainians point out that there are currently no Russian units in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

However, the navy communiqué states that Russian ships are still in the Mediterranean Sea. There are seven of them, two of which are equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles capable of launching a salvo of 22 missiles at once.

Let us recall that the Ukrainians have been regularly hindering the operation of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation lately. At the beginning of January, the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, Dmytro Pletenczuk, reported that Russians have completely abandoned ship repairs at bases in occupied Crimea. This decision is related to fears of units being destroyed, among other things, by Ukrainian surface drones.

Although the Russians have ship repair facilities in Novorossiysk, they have to direct units elsewhere. This means that Ukrainians have managed to force the Russians to completely withdraw from the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Importantly, they achieved this without having a sea fleet of their own.

It should also be added that the Russian Federation previously held several valuable vessels in these regions, which the Ukrainians destroyed or damaged. Among such equipment, there are Project 22160 ships, but also submarines of the Kilo-class 877 (Rostov-on-Don) damaged during an aerial attack on the shipyard in Sevastopol, as well as a landing craft of Project 775.

The Ukrainians most frequently use Sea Baby marine drones for daring actions, which can carry up to 850 kilograms of explosives. Visually, this equipment resembles a motorboat. It is, however, appropriately camouflaged to make detection at sea more difficult. This drone is controlled using AR goggles, and the Ukrainians utilize the same technology used in FPV drones.