Russian official recognises Black Sea Fleet was forced to leave Crimea due to Ukrainian UAV attacks

Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Roscosmos, Russia's national space agency, as well as the Russian-backed "head" of the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, revealed that the Russian Federation's Black Sea Fleet altered its location due to strikes from Ukrainian naval drones.

Source: Rogozin in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets, as reported by Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian news agency

Quote: "If we go back to weapons systems and the modifications that occurred during the special military operation [as the Russians refer to the war against Ukraine – ed.], the methods of combat use, the Black Sea Fleet provides an interesting example.

It was forced to modify its place of residence [i.e. its docking space – ed.] since our massive ships had become easy targets for unmanned enemy boats."

Background:

• On 1 February, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reported that soldiers of the Group 13 special forces unit of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine destroyed the guided-missile corvette Ivanovets, part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, on the night of 31 January-1 February 2024.
• On 4 August 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine conducted a special operation in Novorossiysk Bay, Russia. An uncrewed surface vessel (USV) damaged the heavy landing ship Olenegorskiy Gornyak, causing a "serious breach".
• Ukrainian intelligence stated that due to Ukrainian attacks on the Russian Navy, the Russians are trying to establish a naval base in Ochamchire, a town in the Russian-occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia.
• According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of the beginning of 2024, Ukrainian forces had disabled approximately 33% of all combat ships in the Russian Black Sea Fleet since the start of the full-scale invasion.

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