Zelensky Is Chasing Putin’s Black Sea Fleet Out of Crimea

Ukraine’s attacks on annexed Crimea are chasing President Vladimir Putin’s Black Sea Fleet away from the peninsula, and Kyiv’s efforts in the region have been the most successful aspect of its counteroffensive, according to a former commander of U.S. Army Europe.

Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges spoke with Newsweek after Ukraine’s airforce struck the eastern Crimean port of Feodosia on Tuesday with cruise missiles, damaging Russia’s Novocherkassk landing ship and leaving large numbers of sailors unaccounted for.

It marked the latest strike by Ukraine on Crimea, the peninsula which Putin annexed in 2014 and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged to recapture. The region is Russia’s central logistics hub for its forces in southern Ukraine.

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has suffered extensive casualties throughout the war. Its flagship, Moskva, was attacked in April 2022. In September, Ukraine launched a missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, reportedly killing a number of leading officers and taking out a Russian submarine.

Experts close to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry previously told Newsweek that Kyiv is embarking on a strategy to “demilitarize” the Black Sea Fleet as part of steps toward eventually liberating Crimea. In the past four months, Russia has lost 20 percent of its Black Sea fleet, British Defense Minister Grant Shapps said shortly after the attack on the port of Feodosia.

Satellite images dated October 1 and 2 showed that Russia’s Black Sea Fleet was fleeing from the port of Sevastopol to Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia and the Russian naval port in Feodosia.

After this week’s strikes, two Russian ships, including a military boat belonging to the Black Sea Fleet, were also seen fleeing the port in Feodosia, Krym.realii, the Crimean project of the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty reported.

Newsweek reached out to Russia’s Defense Ministry via email for comment.

“I think the efforts to drive the [Black Sea Fleet] out of Crimea and away from the western Black Sea have been the most successful aspect of the counteroffensive,” Hodges said, referring to Kyiv’s effort since June 2023 to reclaim its occupied territories.

Hodges called on Western nations to provide Ukraine with more long-range precision weapons. Ukraine has pledged not to use U.S.-provided military equipment to carry out strikes on Russian soil.

“If Ukraine has enough long-range precision strike weapons, every single Russian ship, port facility, airfield, and logistics hub in Crimea can/will be hit, and Crimea, the decisive terrain of this conflict, becomes untenable for Russian Navy, Russian Air Force, and Russian Army,” said Hodges.

“The Ukrainians have already proven the concept with their strike on Sevastopol with just three Storm Shadows, and now this strike on Feodosia. Imagine what results they could achieve if the [Ukrainian Armed Forces] had 50 (+) U.S.-provided 300km range ATACMS or German-provided 500km range TAURUS,” he added.

Retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Mark Cancian told Newsweek he believes Ukraine has done an “extraordinary job” of exercising sea control around its territory without the traditional attributes of a navy, ships and naval aircraft.

“This has removed the threat of amphibious attacks and allowed Ukraine to move forces away from the coast and to other threatened areas,” he said. “Combined with attacks on the Kerch bridge, Ukraine is making life difficult for Russia in Crimea.”

Cancian added, however, that it will never be enough to force Russia out of Crimea because there are other ways to supply the peninsula.

“Ferries across the Kerch straits, for example, had been the method for centuries. The pressure does give Putin another reason to want a settlement, but only if he retains control of the peninsula,” he said.

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