How Ukraine neutralized Russia’s blockade in the Black Sea
(Dan Tri) – Ukraine has begun to reopen seaports in the Black Sea after a long period of blockade by the Russian fleet.
The ship repair factory of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol caught fire at the end of September after a Ukrainian raid (Photo: Telegram).
While the ground counterattack was considered slow and failed to achieve a breakthrough, Ukraine changed tactics, increasing attacks against Russian targets in the Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea Fleet.
In recent weeks, Kiev has continuously confirmed attacks on targets such as the Crimea bridge, the ship repair factory for the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the fleet headquarters in Crimea and many other military targets.
This tactical adjustment took place after Russia announced it was freezing the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement that created a safe corridor for grain ships to enter and exit Ukrainian ports in the context of the Russian fleet’s blockage.
Blockade nullification campaign
After annexing Crimea in 2014, Russia gained dominance in the Black Sea.
In the early days of the conflict, Russia attacked and took control of Snake Island, a strategically located island.
However, since spring 2022, Ukraine has counterattacked, preventing Russian forces from attacking Odessa, Ukraine’s largest and most strategic port in the Black Sea.
Then, in April 2022, Ukraine announced it had sunk the Moskva cruiser with a domestic Neptune missile.
Russia’s blockade in the Black Sea is gradually loosened.
After that, Ukraine increased its long-range raids.
According to former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, UAVs play an important role in the campaign to help Ukraine break Russia’s blockade in the Black Sea.
Mr. Reznikov likens the boom in domestic drone production to the early days in Silicon Valley, when Steve Jobs built the first Apple computers in his garage.
`This war is the last conventional land war. Future wars will be high-tech wars. The Black Sea is like a polygon. We are witnessing serious combat tests,`
He said Ukraine is building a series of UAVs as well as suicide boats and unmanned underwater devices.
`We have no real fleet or naval capabilities, but we can attack enemy targets with UAVs,` he emphasized.
Mr. Zagorodnyuk said that Ukraine has pioneered `a new form of warfare`.
The cost of building a suicide boat is about 10,000-100,000 USD.
In addition to UAVs, missiles also played a big role in Ukraine’s campaign.
`We used a special code: Whiskey. One day, Minister Ben informed me: Strong whiskey is coming,` Mr. Reznikov recounted.
Recently, Ukraine attacked Russian bases in Crimea, destroying at least two S-400 missile complexes and a radar station.
Next, Ukrainian missiles targeted a ship repair factory in Sevastopol, causing `irrecoverable` damage to two Russian warships being repaired there.
Satellite images show smoke rising from the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol after Ukraine’s raid (Photo: Reuters).
By carrying out raids with drones, suicide boats and missiles, Ukraine has eroded Russia’s naval advantage, moving Russia from a blockade of Ukrainian ports to a defensive position in the Black Sea.
The Bell website in Russia cited satellite photos taken on October 1 and October 2 shared by Russian military bloggers showing that Russia appears to have relocated 14 warships from Sevastopol Bay (Crimea) to the military port.
Meanwhile, Izvestiya daily newspaper quoted an official in Abkhazia, a separatist region in Georgia, saying Russia plans to open a naval base on the Black Sea in this region.
The British Ministry of Defense said that Russia’s move is partly to limit the threat of attack from Ukraine, and on the other hand is also to narrow the coordination gap between their air force and navy.
According to experts, the Crimea raid campaign and the Russian fleet have created a premise for Ukraine to open an alternative grain transportation corridor in the western Black Sea near Romania and Bulgaria, allowing ships to safely enter and exit the country’s ports.
However, Ukrainian officials also expressed caution.
Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said Russia has about 30 warships, many small ships protecting the Crimea bridge.
The Crimean peninsula has been annexed by Russia since 2014 (Graphic: Guardian).