2024-07-26 07:54:18
“There is no longer a single Russian warship in the Sea of Azov,” Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchiuks announced late Wednesday in a Facebook post. “It seems they’ve started to suspect something.”
Ukraine has stepped up its offensive on Crimea in a bid to retake the Black Sea peninsula, which it annexed in 2014. annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In March, D. Pletenchiuk said that Ukraine’s “ultimate goal is the complete absence of military ships of the so-called Russian Federation in the Azov and Black Sea regions.”
A spokesman for Ukraine’s navy said on national television Thursday that Moscow had withdrawn its warships from the Sea of Azov after Kievan forces attacked and damaged the Russian ferry Slavianin in the port of Caucasus in Russia’s Krasnodar region on Tuesday.
The vessel was reportedly used by Russia to transport railcars, trucks and containers for military purposes.
“Another excellent result of the synchronized efforts of the defense forces: the occupiers’ ferry in the port of Caucasus was severely damaged,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported.
The port of Caucasus is about 11 kilometers from the Kerch Bridge, which connects annexed Crimea with mainland Russia. Ukraine has promised to destroy this structure and from 2022. after the start of V. Putin’s full-scale invasion of the country in February, successfully hit the bridge twice.
“They decided to leave the waters of the Sea of Azov, this was primarily due to the damage to the railway ferry,” said D. Pletenčiuk. “They took a map and a compass and decided it probably wasn’t very safe to stay there.” It is the only language our enemy understands – the language of power.”
Russia has moved many of its warships from annexed Crimea to Novorossiysk due to Ukraine’s incessant attacks.
Last October, satellite images showed the Russian fleet moving from Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk in Russia’s Krasnodar Territory. The ships also sailed to the Russian naval port of Feodosia on the annexed Crimean peninsula further east.
The latest satellite images from April, shared by Open Intelligence researcher MT Anderson, showed that the Black Sea Fleet had largely abandoned key naval bases in Crimea.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Crimea had been attacked by drones from the air and sea at night. According to her, Russian forces intercepted and destroyed four aerial and two naval drones that were moving towards the Black Sea peninsula, according to Newsweek.
2024-07-26 07:54:18