After a series of painful losses for the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, Russia is now resorting to the use of submarines. This was announced by Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Southern Military Command of Ukraine, on the country's national television, Business Insider reports.
The Russian Navy has long been self-confident that it is one of the most advanced in the world, but this myth was debunked by Ukraine, which, after Putin's full-scale aggression, sank a number of Russian ships, including the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet “Moscow” .
Ukrainian forces continue to strike Crimea, and the Black Sea has become an area that is not safe for Russian forces. According to Pletenchuk, Russia has deployed four submarines, including three carriers of cruise missiles, to patrol the Black Sea, Kyiv Independent reports.
The "Yasen" class submarines are of particular interest to NATO. The Russian cruise missile submarine is nuclear-powered, has improved sonar and smaller, quieter reactors than previous models. It can attack different kind of targets. This worries Western authorities, as there are fears that the submarines could reach and attack key locations in Europe and North America.
For its part, the Ukrainian side is using drones, missiles and other weapons against Russian warships to combat Russian presence in the Black Sea. The Ukrainian military said earlier this year that it had destroyed a third of Russia's Black Sea fleet. Britain's Ministry of Defense has declared Putin's fleet “functionally inactive” in March.
In response to the attacks, the Russian navy had to seek safer ports further away from Crimea.
Yesterday it was reported that Ukraine had downed one S-300 anti-aircraft missile system (SAMS) and two S-400 air defense systems near Belbek and Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula. This is the second Ukrainian strike against Russian air defenses in Crimea in several days. “As a result of the strikes, two radars of the S-300 and S-400 complexes were destroyed. The information about the third radar is still being specified”, the Ukrainian General Staff wrote in Telegram.