Volodymyr Zelensky is certain: Crimea and the Black Sea “will become the new center of gravity of the war”says the Ukrainian president in an interview published by the British weekly The EconomistMonday 1er January. Isolating the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, degrading the military capabilities of the Russian army and fleet there are among the objectives that kyiv has set for the year 2024. “This is the way forward if we want to reduce the number of attacks launched from this region”explains Mr. Zelensky.
Ukraine has already scored points in the Pontic basin and on the strategic peninsula, managing to destroy, since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, around twenty ships from the Black Sea Fleet, including a submarine, a flagship, as well as ships of landing.
Damage was inflicted on various Russian installations, in Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Feodosia, three important port cities on the Black Sea. Losing the naval bases that Russia has held for more than two hundred years on the peninsula would be a clear failure for Vladimir Putin, who annexed the peninsula to keep it in the Russian fold. However, slowly but surely, Ukrainian forces are working to reduce the firepower of their adversary in the Black Sea.
Spectacular explosion
“No Crimean port is safer for Russian warships”, declared, Tuesday, December 26, 2023, to the Bloomberg agency, Rouslan Poukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, a pro-Kremlin think tank. Ukraine has “simply expelled the Crimean fleet”concludes the expert.
The latest Ukrainian attack, which occurred on the night of December 26, destroyed a large Russian landing ship, the Novocherkassk, in the port of Feodosia, which is home to a major Russian base, east of Crimea. Seventy-seven sailors were on board, 74 of whom were killed by the strike, likely carried out by one or more Ukrainian Sukhoi fighters carrying Storm Shadow or Scalp cruise missiles.
Images broadcast repeatedly on social networks show a large-scale explosion. This spectacular nature is explained by the fact that the ship was hit when it was docked to unload boxes of Iranian Shahed-type drones and the missiles it was carrying. The pro-Russian military Telegram channel Rybar, which has 1.2 million subscribers, pointed out the ” neglect “ of the command of the Russian fleet.
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