Moscow has moved parts of its Black Sea fleet to southern Russia.
The Kremlin justifies this with a new formation, England suspects other reasons.
Bremen – For fear of long-range Ukrainian fire, Moscow has relocated parts of its submarine fleet from the Crimean peninsula to southern Russia, according to British intelligence.
In a daily briefing on Tuesday, the UK ministry said on Twitter that the submarines were most likely moved to the Krasnodar region on mainland Russia rather than to a naval base in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula.
"This was probably due to the recently changed security situation given the improved Ukrainian ability to conduct long-range strikes," the British Ministry of Defense said.
The fleet administration and the seaport had already been attacked in the last two months.
In addition, the security of the Black Sea fleet in Crimea was one of the reasons why Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed the peninsula in 2014.
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A Russian submarine in the Black Sea during a parade last year.
(archive image)
© IMAGO/ITAR-TASS
Russia cites reformation as reason for Black Sea Fleet transfer
That security has now been directly undermined by Russia's ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
Internationally recognized as belonging to Ukraine, which also claims the island, Moscow considers the Crimean Peninsula to be Russian territory.
Due to Russia's heavy casualties in recent weeks, Moscow launched a public media campaign supporting the narrative that the special operation designated by the Russian side was going according to plan.
Officially, Russia justifies the relocation of parts of its submarine fleet with the fact that some troops are to be withdrawn from the Kharkiv region for the purpose of regrouping.
However, Russia's losses are also being noticed on state television.
According to the news site
aljazeera.com
, the Russian president had warned against a "serious response" in response to "terrorist acts" by Ukraine.
(Niklas Mueller)
List of rubrics: © IMAGO/ITAR-TASS