Ukraine has claimed to have hit two more large Russian large warships and destroyed its Black Sea Fleet communications centre in a deadly overnight strike. The Yamal and the Azov landing ships, each worth £170 million, were both hit in the overnight onslaught while in Black Sea naval port Sevastopol, according to reports https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ng-Black-Sea-Fleet-communications-centre.html
Yes. The Russians do not like to even have ships in Sevastopol because...well...the Ukrainians strike them, often successfully. The reason they keep bringing them back to Sevastopol- from their hiding in the Sea of Azov- is because these are amphibious assault/landing ships and Russia has been trying -since the beginning of the war- to do an assault and landing at Odessa. They have not been able to do it though. It went bad for the Russians right from the beginning when they brought the Moskva over with some other ships to bombard Odessa before the landing. That did not work out so well, eh? Of course, Putin just fired and replaced the Black Sea Fleet commander - again- so I guess this is the Ukrainians welcoming him aboard. Both Putin and the new commander know that the commander goes to Siberia if the Kersh Bridge goes down, and the Ukrainians just too down two ships in the most aerial defenses in Russia- Sevastopol. Vlad is thinking, if those fuckers got past the aerial defenses in Sevastopol then the bridge is coming down. The other thing is that those ships went down from British missiles. That is a big worry for Putin because he has Biden working for him making sure that American missiles are not used inside Ukraine. But the Brits are not bound by that. Every successful attack on Sevastopol causes the Ruskies to put more aerial defense there. The problem is that more defense is needed for Moscow, Engles Air Base below Moscow, Belgorod, and the Kerch Bridge too and you cannot increase in new areas without taking from existing defenses elsewhere. And the Ukrainians are using drones to probe the weak spots.
Isis just cut Putin's balls off and left him looking powerless before the Russian people. So he will do what he always does when he is looking powerless, which is to bomb some civilians and get in the face of some Nato ally such as Poland- to create lots of conflict- to divert attention from his problems at home. Putin has just been re-elected and he has decided that the special military operation scam is over and he is actively telling the Russians that they are at war with the west and that he is a wartime president, so expect to see more of your rights and freedoms and political opponents disappear. It's the Russian way. Watch out for Kadyrov, as I said. The other thing that will happen in the next year is that Ukraine will promise the Tatars that they will be returned to Crimea, their original muslim homeland if Ukraine takes it. No only does that continue to turn Russian muslims against Putin but also makes it difficult for Vlad to continue to recruit poor Tatar kids from the Caucuses- because their loyalty is to their ethnic heritage. Right now, Vlad's war machine depends on ethnic kids from the Caucuses and Siberia. Putin will need to work harder to preserve that arrangement, if he can. Entire ethnic groups are beginning to desert, not just individuals. Add Mongolians to that list. Erdogan is a snake and works with Putin often but in this instance he works against Putin. Erdogan supports the Tatars who I guess have some Turkish language and cultural connections and he supports Crimea being free. And Erdogan knows how to work with the Muslins, and sees himself as the future leader of the Muslim world. It is nutty but that is Putin's problem. In any case, Putin needs to watch out for various ethnic resistances. If Putin ever sees Kadyrov and Erdogan having lunch together, he should be very worried.
"Putin faces some Nasty surprises" "Ukraine will accelerate asymmetric warfare" - Both quotes from Victoria Nuland just before she resigned a few weeks ago. The terrorists were caught near the Ukrainian border, clearly Ukrainian Assets running back to their Ukrainian controllers.. “This operation bears the fingerprints of the CIA-created Ukrainian SBU’s (former Ukrainian KGB) Fifth Directorate that was created for the very purpose of staging these types of attacks deep inside Russia to attempt to destabilize Putin’s regime while giving the US plausible deniability.” February 2014 Maidan coup which was authorized by then Vice President Joe Biden. The Washington Post also reported on this blockbuster revelation in an article entitled, “Ukrainian spies with deep ties to CIA wage shadow war against Russia.”noting that the CIA set up twelve secret bases in Ukraine back several years ago.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/24/...sian-naval-vessels-sevastopol-intl/index.html Ukraine says it hit two Russian naval vessels in major attack on Crimea By Andrew Carey, Maria Kostenko and Josh Pennington, CNN 2 minute read Updated 10:14 PM EDT, Sun March 24, 2024 CNN — Ukraine says it hit two Russian naval vessels, along with a communications center and several other facilities belonging to the Black Sea Fleet, in a huge overnight attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol. There has been no comment from Russian defense officials, although Russian politician and Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev acknowledged on his Telegram channel that it was the “most massive attack in recent times.” A video posted to a local Telegram channel shows a series of large explosions in the city, sending fireballs and thick black smoke into the air. Another fireball can be seen in the far distance. Ukraine said the vessels hit were two amphibious landing ships, the Yamal and the Azov. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear. Hailing the attacks, Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on social media, “The sky and the sea are of the same color! I thank the pilots and navy for their successful combat work! Crimea is ours! To the victory together!” Making no reference to any military sites hit, Razvozhayev said one person had been killed in the attack. Maritime and ground transportation in the city, he said, had been “partially damaged.” Elsewhere in Crimea, Russian military bloggers say Ukrainian forces also targeted sites in the west and the center of the illegally-annexed peninsular, including at Hvardiiske, which lies just north of Crimea’s administrative center, Simferopol. Users posting video to a local Telegram channel have suggested an oil depot there was attacked. CNN is unable to immediately verify the latest claims by either side. While Moscow appears clearly to have the upper hand in its ground campaign, Kyiv’s forces have enjoyed sustained successes targeting Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, in either missile strikes or sea drone attacks. More than 20 Russian naval vessels have now been disabled or destroyed, a third of the entire fleet. Though Ukraine has virtually no navy of its own, technological innovation, audacity and Russian incompetence have given it the upper hand in much of the Black Sea. In October last year, satellite imagery indicated that Russia relocated some of its naval ships away from Sevastopol after a series of Ukrainian attacks. If Sunday’s strikes on the Yamal and Azov are confirmed, it would likely mean Russia had only three working landing ships left in the Black Sea. Ukraine says Moscow began the full-scale invasion with 13 such vessels. In September, a Ukrainian missile strike also destroyed the fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol. For Ukraine, the impact is not just military but also economic, because it helps to secure a shipping corridor from Odesa and other ports towards the Bosphorus Strait, allowing Ukraine to sell grain and other products on world markets. Previous reporting from Tim Lister, Anna Chernova, Victoria Butenko, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Maria Kostenko and Paul Murphy
40 Storm Shadow and Neptune missiles. Also decoy missiles ADM-160. Timestamped say approx $70 mil such attack. Can't find anything about Ropucha vessel price. Chat GPT be like :