Katerina Schwartz20:36, 17.07.24

It is noted that Putin responded to the humiliating defeat of the Black Sea Fleet by quietly ordering the remaining ships to retreat.

Russia has withdrawn its ships from temporarily occupied Crimea, the latest evidence that Ukraine is, against all odds, winning the war at sea. As the Atlantic Council’s think tank noted , the Russian fleet’s retreat literally makes a mockery of Western concerns about escalation.

“When Russia began blockading Ukrainian ports ahead of a full-scale invasion in February 2022, few believed that the decrepit Ukrainian navy could seriously challenge the dominance of Russia’s mighty Black Sea Fleet. Once hostilities began, however, it soon became clear that Ukraine had no intention of ceding control of the Black Sea to Putin without a fight,” the publication says.

It is noted that when the full-scale invasion began, the Russian Black Sea Fleet had seventy-four warships in its composition, most of which were based in the ports of Russian-occupied Crimea.

“In just over two years, Ukraine has managed to sink or damage about a third of these ships. In the second half of 2023, there were already reports of Russian warships being hastily transferred across the Black Sea from Crimea to the relative safety of Novorossiysk in Russia. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, by March 2024, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet had become “functionally inactive,” the analysts note.

Ukraine’s remarkable success in the Battle of the Black Sea has disrupted Russian logistics and made it difficult to resupply Russian forces in southern Ukraine, while limiting Russia’s ability to bomb Ukrainian targets from warships armed with cruise missiles, it continues.

“Russia’s response to its mounting setbacks in the Black Sea battle was also highly revealing and offers valuable lessons for future warfare. There was much speculation that a cornered Putin might resort to extreme measures, including the use of nuclear weapons. In fact, he responded to the humiliating defeat of the Black Sea fleet by quietly ordering his remaining warships to retreat,” the Atlantic Council noted.

It is noted that for almost two and a half years, Ukraine’s partners allowed themselves to be intimidated, refusing to provide Ukraine with certain categories of weapons and limiting strikes on Russian territory.

“The West’s fear of escalation is Putin’s most effective weapon… Western leaders say they are motivated by a desire to avoid provoking a wider war, but that is exactly what will happen if they continue to pursue a misguided policy of escalation management and fail to stop Putin in Ukraine,” the analysts concluded.

Let us recall that UNIAN previously wrote that on July 15, the last patrol ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet left Ukrainian Crimea.

“By evening, it entered its base in Novorossiysk… This is almost a record pace of transferring a ship from one base to another – they had no desire to linger at sea,” said Dmitry Pletenchuk, a representative of the Ukrainian Navy.

(C)UNIAN 2024