Vladimir PoutineUkraine’s last naval patrol ship based in annexed Crimea has “fled” after repeated attacks on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Ukraine says.
The fleet is based in Sevastopol, on the peninsula conquered by Moscow in 2014.
But Ukraine has heavily targeted the naval base and ships, sinking several of them, with drones and missiles, some of which are believed to be British-supplied Storm Shadows.
Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, head of the Ukrainian Navy, said earlier this month that Russia had been forced to move almost all of its combat-ready warships from occupied Crimea.
“The last patrol ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation is leaving Crimea right now. Remember this day,” Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said on Facebook.
Asked whether this was a permanent move, he stressed: “This is most likely a transition between bases,” adding that Moscow generally did not send ships to the high seas without reason.
He said the ship’s designation was Project 1135.
kyiv destroyed or damaged 27 Russian warships, Vice Admiral Neizhpapa said, although this could not be independently verified.
In May, Ukrainian authorities said they had destroyed the last Russian warship armed with cruise missiles stationed on the peninsula.
The Ukrainian Navy struck the warship Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, in April 2022, and it subsequently sank.
Last month, Putin told naval chiefs that the Russian fleet had been replenished in recent years and that a major modernization was underway, including measures to “increase the combat stability of the fleet” and strengthen it.
Moscow’s setbacks in the Black Sea come at a time when Ukrainian ground troops are in a weak position on a sprawling front, particularly in the east.
This situation is partly due to a shortage of munitions, as Republicans in Washington blocked a new aid plan for kyiv.
The United States, Britain and other allies have now stepped up their military support for Ukraine, and at a Nato summit in Washington, new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stressed that this support was long-term.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the first F-16 fighter jets from the West would arrive in his country within weeks, but stressed that more of the aircraft were needed.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that its forces had taken control of the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which, if confirmed, would be the latest in a series of gains since the capture of the strategic town of Avdiivka in February.
Ukrainian bloggers said kyiv’s forces had relinquished control of the village, southwest of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk.
The Ukrainian military said fighting was still continuing in the region.
“As a result of successful actions, the group of forces “East” took control of the settlement of Urozhaine in the Donetsk region… and is conducting mine-clearing and cleaning operations,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The village came under Russian control at the start of the February 2022 invasion, but Ukraine recaptured the settlement near the Mokri Yaly River in July 2023.
The operation was part of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the southern and eastern areas along the 600-mile front line, which has made only limited progress.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Sunday morning that Russia had launched 18 attacks on Urozhaine and other nearby settlements. It made no mention of the village in a report released late in the afternoon.
British defence chiefs say Russian casualties, killed and wounded in combat, rose in May to a daily average of 1,262, and in June to 1,163, as Putin’s military leaders threw troops into attacks in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine while continuing their offensive along the front line further south.
“In total, Russia has probably lost (killed and wounded) more than 70,000 servicemen in the last two months,” the Ministry of Defence in London said.
Ukrainian forces are also said to have suffered heavy losses.
DeepState, a popular Ukrainian military blog, reported the capture of Urozhaine on Sunday, saying that Russian forces had launched “massive assaults on the southern part of the village.”
He described the loss as a “collapse of the defence” whose cause should be investigated.
