Russia-Ukraine War: Another Russian ship is sunk and battle rages in the Black Sea

Clashes on a strategic islet, a sunken Russian ship, attacks on gas platforms … The battle rages in the Black Sea, off the coast of a Ukraine that is challenging Russian naval power.

Events accelerated in a few days, especially around the island of the Snakes, according to observers and protagonists of the conflict.

The situation “has clearly escalated with actions on both sides,” summarizes a Western military expert, after four months of war in which Russia has failed to impose its dominion over the sea.

This wave of activity is linked to Kiev’s use of Western weapons such as the Harpoon anti-ship missiles, launched from the coast.

But it was another type of anti-ship missile, a Ukrainian Neptune, that sank the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea in April.

The challenge of Kiev

This coup of the Ukrainians was an insult to Russia. Since the start of the war, Kiev has managed to secure control of its coast from the Romanian border west of Kherson (south) with land batteries, drones and mines.

“We are in a new phase of the war, in which Ukraine has new Western weapons such as the Harpoon or the Brimstone (surface-to-air missiles),” explains HI Sutton, an independent analyst, to the AFP agency, for which kyiv can begin to “challenge” a “less daring” Russian navy.

Several experts consulted by the AFP and the UK Ministry of Defense echoed Ukraine’s claim of destruction last week of a Russian support ship near Snake Island with a Harpoon missile.

On Monday, Kiev forces attacked a gas plant, the fire of which was detected by a NASA website.

The action was conducted again with a Harpoon missile, which is said to be part of those sent to Ukraine from the Netherlands or Denmark, according to the Western military expert. According to him, those promises from the United States have not yet arrived.

strategic island

On Tuesday, the Russians said they destroyed a significant number of drones during an attack by their rival on the island of the Serpents, as part of a landing project they would eventually abandon.

Satellite images consulted by experts show the destruction. Other attacks have already been observed on this strategic islet, which the Russians seized from the Ukrainians at the beginning of the war.

“There is evidence that the island was attacked, but not that the Ukrainians wanted to land,” says HI Sutton, for whom Ukraine can bomb it with its artillery, so “they don’t need to try to land.”

Although the fighters and their allies document the war on the mainland through social networks, the naval battle takes place in relative silence.

The information comes mainly from satellite images, from what the warring countries want to declare or disclose to the rest of the governments that control the area.

The Russians, for their part, are trying to hit Ukrainian structures on the coast with their missiles. “There was an attack in Odessa. Some hangars were hit, but there is no clear evidence of serious damage,” according to HI Sutton.

“The defense capability of the Ukrainian coast has largely neutralized Russia’s ability to gain maritime control and project its forces into the northwestern Black Sea,” the British Defense Ministry said.

For the independent specialist, Ukraine must dissuade the Russian landing, especially when Moscow’s intentions on the neighboring Transnistrian region in Moldova are not known.

Russia could try to merge its territory with this breakaway zone across the west coast of Ukraine.

Source: AFP

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