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Strikes on Russian oil refineries have a significant impact on Russia’s ability to conduct warfare. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Commander of U.S. Forces Europe in 2014-17, stated this during the 16th annual Kyiv Security Forum. “Of course, attacks on oil refineries have a significant impact. Russia is less able to pay for this war, and it also deprives it of the necessary fuel to continue hostilities. I would recommend ignoring the calls for an end to such attacks.” The Lieutenant General emphasized that sanctions against Russia need to be strengthened. He also added that 2024 will be the year of...

Ukraine said Tuesday it had sunk a Russian patrol ship off the coast of occupied Crimea, claiming another victory over the Kremlin's forces in the hotly contested waters of the Black Sea. Moscow did not confirm the claim, which would represent the latest blow to its naval power as Kyiv strikes targets deep behind the war's front lines, even as its army suffers setbacks on the battlefield. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that it had used high-tech sea drones in an overnight attack on the large patrol ship Sergey Kotov near the Kerch Strait, which separates the annexed peninsula’s eastern...

The Kremlin has fired the commander of its Black Sea Fleet as punishment for a series of humiliating losses to Ukraine, according to Russian war bloggers. The bloggers said that Admiral Viktor Sokolov was replaced by chief of staff Vice Admiral Sergey Pinchuk after Ukraine sank the Russian warship Caesar Kunikov with a sea drone last week. It was the latest in a series of victories for Ukraine, which has a tiny navy, against Russia's much bigger Black Sea fleet. "It seems that it had become impossible to ignore the latest heavy losses of the fleet," the War Informant channel...

What have I done to be placed on the sanctions list of the Russian Foreign Ministry, alongside several distinguished historians of eastern Europe? My normal hunting ground (not the right word for a maritime historian) is the Mediterranean and the oceans beyond. But maybe Russia’s mandarins know that I am now writing about the Black Sea. Since the reign of Peter the Great in the 18th century, Russia has seen the Black Sea as a vital gateway to the wider world. The Ottoman sultans blocked Russian attempts to reach warmer waters via Istanbul. Russian ships bound for intended conquests had...

Ukraine's successful suppression of the Russian Black Sea fleet has resulted in Kyiv's grain exports rising to their highest levels since the invasion by Moscow began. -snip- Russia's Black Sea fleet flagship Moskva was destroyed by Ukraine in the early days of the war. The losses have continued since then, with British Defence Secretary Grant Shapp saying last month that Russia had lost 20 percent of its Black Sea fleet over the course of four months. Significant recent losses include the December destruction of large Russian landing ship Novocherkassk and last week's revelation that Ukrainian drones sank a Tarantul-class corvette...

A court on Tuesday sentenced a former senior officer in the National Guard to six years in a prison colony after convicting him of buying equipment unable to protect the bridge which links southern Russia to Crimea, the TASS state news agency reported. TASS said that Colonel Sergei Volkov had purchased two radar-based air defence systems for 395 million roubles ($4.5 million) which were meant to be able to bring down Ukrainian attack drones by suppressing their signal. A military court in Moscow had determined that the equipment - which was also meant to protect a gas pipeline running from...

A Ukrainian missile strike hit a Russian warship moored in Crimea early on Tuesday, in what appeared to be one of the most significant attacks against Moscow’s prized Black Sea Fleet in months amid Kyiv’s intensified campaign to target the Russian-occupied peninsula. The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that it had destroyed the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, in the southeastern Crimean port of Feodosia overnight. Russia’s Defense Ministry told the Tass state news agency that the ship had been damaged in an attack using “aircraft-guided missiles,” but did not say whether the vessel had been permanently disabled....

Grain thunders into rail cars and trucks zip around a storage facility in central Ukraine, a place that growing numbers of companies turned to as they struggled to export their food to people facing hunger around the world. Now, more of the grain is getting unloaded from overcrammed silos and heading to ports on the Black Sea, set to traverse a fledgling shipping corridor launched after Russia pulled out of a U.N.-brokered agreement this summer that allowed food to flow safely from Ukraine during the war. “It was tight, but we kept working … we sought how to accept every...

Speaking at the Grain from Ukraine conference in Kyiv on Saturday, Nov. 25, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that partner countries have committed to transferring warships to Ukraine to enhance the safety of vessels navigating the critical "grain corridor" in the Black Sea. Zelensky hailed the establishment and operation of the "grain corridor" as one of the notable achievements of the year. "We have reached agreements with our partners and will provide sea escorts to ensure the safety of ships," explained President Zelensky during the conference. He emphasized that specific agreements for receiving the warships have already been made, making it...

Ukrainian attack on a shipyard in annexed eastern Crimea last week caused "significant" damage, a Ukrainian military spokesperson has said. Ukraine's Southern Command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk made the remarks on national television on Sunday, commenting on the November 4 strike by Ukraine on the Zaliv shipyard, also referred to as Butoma, in Kerch, which reportedly hit Russian cruise-missile carrier Askold. Schemes, a project by U.S.-funded Radio Liberty, published satellite images by California-based global-imaging company Planet Labs that appear to show the aftermath of the strike on the vessel, which is armed with a Kalibr strike missile system. "As for the...

Day 587. Today, we bring you the latest news from the battlefront and discuss Ukraine and the EU. Plus we have a double bill of interviews, from Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, chair of the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and Dmytro Natalukha, People’s Deputy of Ukraine from Sluha Narodne, the Servant of the People party.

It was a moment of humiliation for Moscow. The headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet – a building of elegant white columns overlooking the Crimean port of Sevastopol – was ablaze. Smoke billowed into a blue sky. First one, and then a second Storm Shadow missile slammed into its roof. Video captured the impact: a precise, deadly, thunderous strike. The attack on 22 September killed 34 officers, including Viktor Sokolov, the fleet’s commander, according to Ukraine. Russia denied this, releasing footage of Sokolov, suggesting he was still alive. Whatever the truth of the admiral’s fate, the blow deep into enemy...

It has been three weeks since a Ukrainian attack seriously damaged a Russian submarine and a Russian landing vessel which were both in dry dock at a port in Crimea.A major incident occurred at the Sevmorzavod shipyard in temporarily occupied Sevastopol last night. Witnesses observed a number of violent explosions that continued for some time, followed by a major fire. Russian sources said that a large landing ship Minsk and a submarine "Rostov-na-Donu" had been struck. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian GUR thanked Ukrainian pilots for their great work. Russian sources claim that the shipyard was attacked with 10 cruise missiles, 7...

The Russian Black Sea Fleet has scattered to escape repeated Ukrainian strikes and consequently is now too far away from the war to be able to engage in it, a functional defeat, the British Armed Forces Minister said on Tuesday. While Ukraine had considerable successes in the land war in 2022 these were not forthcoming in 2023, but that doesn’t mean they are without progress in pushing Russia back, the British Armed Forces Minister told a conference. James Heappey pointed to Ukraine’s strikes against the Russian navy as a clear measure of their progress at the Warsaw Security Forum on...

While Western pundits have warned that Ukraine’s prospects for a successful counteroffensive are bleak and that hopes of retaking Crimea have been dashed, Ukraine’s marine drones have consistently outmaneuvered the once-dominant Russian Navy, pushing it into retreat at sea. Ukraine’s rising marine drone capabilities are still evolving, but as they advance, many expect more aggressive strikes against Russian naval assets in Crimea and across the Black Sea region as the war grinds ahead. At the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion in early March 2022, the Ukrainian Navy sank its own flagship frigate, the seasoned Hetman Sahaidachny, to prevent its seizure....

A major Ukrainian strike last week in the Black Sea killed the commander of the Russian naval fleet there, according to Ukraine. Adm. Viktor Sokolov, commander of the Russian Black Sea fleet, was among 34 officers killed in the strike that destroyed the headquarters for the fleet, Ukraine’s Special Operation Forces said in a Monday Telegram post. Ukrainian officials also claimed the headquarters was destroyed so badly that it “cannot be restored.” The headquarters strike injured another 105 Russian soldiers, Ukrainian officials claimed.

A volley of Ukrainian cruise missiles demolished the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, in Occupied Crimea. The strategic communications directorate of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced the attack that took place around noon Sevastopol time this way on social media: (snip) Fleet Headquarters was struck by two or three cruise missile, either British Storm Shadow or French SCALP-EG. In this video you can see one of them on short final. There are reports of several high-ranking officers killed or injured in the attack. Unofficially, Admiral Viktor Sokolov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, was among the...

Following successful Ukrainian attacks on a large landing ship and a submarine in occupied Sevastopol, the Russians have moved three large landing ships from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the national 24/7 newscast, said that "These processes concerning the liberation of our territory will continue in the future. By the way, it is telling that today the Russian invaders have for some reason moved three large landing ships from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov." Pletenchuk noted that the large landing...

Claims of new successful drone attacks on Russian warships of the Black Sea Fleet remain unconfirmed as of Saturday, though two ships in question were seen under tow in Sevastopol. Observers quickly noticed the appearance of Russian Project 1239 Bora-class missile corvette Samum under tow in Sevastopol after a Ukrainian “Sea Baby” uncrewed surface vessel attack Thursday outside Sevastopol. A picture appears to show the hovercraft's stern sitting low in the water with tow boats connected to bow and stern lines, though obvious evidence of damage remains unseen. Satellite imagery also captured the Black Sea Fleet flagship Admiral Makarov, a...

Ukraine’s audacious strike on Sevastopol’s naval infrastructure has apparently severely damaged a landing craft and a submarine. Aside from inflicting significant naval losses, the sidelining of a major naval dry dock facility complicates Russia’s ability to operate on the Black Sea. In modern warfare, dry docks have always been a high-priority target. As complex pieces of heavy machinery, necessary for the basic maintenance of any naval force, dry docks—facilities where ships can be floated in and repaired after water is pumped out—are not easy things to fix. America is spending billions to refresh undamaged dry docks. Repairing battle damage will...