The Battle for Crimea! Ukrainian army drives out Russian navy, but it will be difficult to retake the peninsula

After Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has repeatedly struck Crimea, destroying or damaging about half of the Russian navy's warships, including one submarine, Business Insider reports.

Ukraine has used unmanned aerial vehicles, naval drones and anti-ship missiles against the navy and the Crimean bridge, often with devastating effect. Ukraine's campaign has even forced Russian warships to withdraw from Crimea to bases in the port cities of Feodosia in far-flung Crimea and Novorossiysk in Russia.

This not only prevents Russian forces from using the peninsula as a key logistics route through southern Ukraine, but also spoils its appeal to Russian tourists. But, the publication says, if Ukraine hopes to retake Crimea, it will need a massive strike force, as the battle for Crimea could turn out to be the heaviest battle of the bloody war.

"It will be extremely difficult to get Crimea back because Crimea is essentially an island," Mark Kanchan, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the publication.

"The landing is impossible because Ukraine does not have ships to transport a large number of soldiers and heavy equipment. In addition, Russia still has long-range aircraft and submarines that are essentially invulnerable at sea," the expert explains.

According to Basil Germond, an international security expert at Lancaster University in the UK, Russia has an extensive military infrastructure in Crimea that must be severely damaged for Ukraine to have any chance of retaking it.

The challenging location of Crimea makes the task even more difficult

Military experts and analysts told BI that reaching Crimea is not easy due to its location far from the front line, Russia's heavily fortified defense lines and Ukraine's lack of manpower and aircraft.

"Crimea is deep in Russian-occupied territory and far from the current front lines," Kanchan points out.

Russia has also heavily fortified its front line with anti-tank ditches, mazes of trenches, "dragon teeth" and minefields, with most of its defenses located in Northern Crimea.

"The Russians are heavily fortified and well defended in these areas, and it will take time for the Ukrainians to break through those defenses," said Mark Temnitsky, a freelance research fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center.

Without the ability to transport large forces by air or water, Ukraine will be forced to attack through Russian defensive lines to get closer to Crimea.