(Dan Tri) – Commercial ships have returned to Ukrainian ports in Odesa for the first time since the fighting broke out without permission from Russia.
A military parade of the Russian Navy in Sevastopol, Crimea in July 2021 (Photo: Reuters).
By using an asymmetric fighting strategy, focusing on using suicide boats and homemade missiles to target Russian ships right at the base, Ukraine has largely weakened the enemy’s superior position.
`To ensure our security now and in the future, we must defend our shores right at the shores of our opponents,` Ukrainian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa said in an interview.
Asymmetric strategy
Outnumbered 12 times by the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Ukrainian Navy was not a force worth mentioning when the conflict broke out in February 2022.
In Odesa, ports stopped operating.
But at this time, Russian warships no longer roam the northwestern Black Sea due to fear of Ukraine’s coastal defense missiles and dense minefields.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has increased the frequency of attacks on Russian warships at sea and at the base ports of Sevastopol and Novorossiysk.
Smoke rose after Ukrainian missiles attacked the city of Sevastopol (Photo: Zuma Press).
Before that, Ukraine launched a missile attack on the dry dock in Sevastopol, causing damage to one of the six Kilo-class submarines operated by Russia in the Black Sea and a large Ropucha-class amphibious ship that Russia planned to use for landings.
Military analysts say that the damage to the dry dock will certainly complicate the Russian Navy’s operations in the coming months.
Several types of long-range suicide boats produced by Ukraine have also brought new attack capabilities at a time when Kiev cannot deploy large conventional warships.
`It’s clear that unmanned vehicles are something that causes tension for the enemy, making them not feel safe right at the base port,` Brigadier General Neizhpapa said.
Russia’s troubles
Tensions in the Black Sea entered a new phase in July, after Russia terminated a United Nations-brokered agreement that allowed Ukraine to export 33 million tons of food by Russian-inspected ships.
In August, Ukraine used a suicide boat to attack the Russian oil tanker Sig – a ship that had supplied supplies to Moscow’s forces in Syria – in the south of the Kerch Strait, and at the same time declared all major Russian ports in the Sea
The list of ports includes Novorossiysk, Russia’s largest commercial port and an important gateway for the country’s main source of revenue, oil exports.
Image of the Ukrainian Navy’s flagship Hetman Sahaidachny (U130) being sunk in Mykolaiv shortly after Russia launched a `special military operation` (Photo: Twitter/@GrangerE04117).
After the grain deal collapsed, the Ukrainian military in August unilaterally announced a corridor for civilian ships to enter and leave Odesa, through a journey hugging the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria.
The above development became possible thanks to Kiev’s new military capabilities that can attack Russian ports, such as the homemade Neptune missile, according to Ukrainian officials.
`The Russian side must realize that this is no longer a one-way street and that both sides can play this game,` said Dmytro Barinov, deputy executive director of the Ukrainian Seaports Authority.
In addition to suicide boat attacks, Ukrainian special forces also used small boats to carry out a series of raids in recent weeks.
`Ukraine has gradually regained the initiative and this series of small tactical victories has begun to contribute to operational and even strategic success,` said Michael Petersen, founding director of the Institute for Research.
Video by YouTube channel AiTelly shows the structure of the unmanned suicide boat that was used by Ukraine to attack Russian warships in the Black Sea.
Despite being a naval power, Russia cannot currently compensate for losses in the Black Sea with ships from other fleets because Türkiye, the NATO country that controls the strait between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, has banned ships from participating in the war. passing from February 2022, implementing the 1936 Montreux Convention.
Currently, an area of nearly 25,000 square kilometers in the northwest of the Black Sea has become a no-man’s land.
Russia currently maintains air superiority here, but Mr. Neizhpapa believes that this situation will end after Ukraine receives F-16 fighter jets in the coming months.
Unlike Ukraine’s outdated fighter jets, the F-16 possesses radar that can identify Russian aircraft and is equipped with missiles that can destroy opponents in air confrontations.
`I can assure you, if the F-16s were simply patrolling above Odesa, there would be no Russian aircraft in the northwest of the Black Sea,` Mr. Neizhpapa affirmed.
