As of: January 29, 2024, 7:33 a.m
By: Karsten Hinzmann
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Unprecedented loss: The cruiser “Moskva” was successfully fought from land and sunk.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet had lost its flagship - and given Ukraine courage.
(Archive photo) © Can Merey/dpa
The Ukrainian vice admiral wants to bring the war back to Russia - with German weapons.
Maybe Olaf Scholz has reason to be careful after all.
Kiev – Lack dominates Ukraine everywhere: on land, in the air and at sea.
Now the country invaded by Russia is planning to strengthen itself, especially there: Ukraine also wants to be on an equal footing with its navy against Vladimir Putin's troops.
Britain should help in the Ukraine war, as Sky
News
now reports.
In addition to the delivery of tanks and missiles, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps announced in December that two Royal Navy minehunters would be handed over to the Ukrainian Navy, although the ships would not be able to enter Ukrainian ports until the end of the war due to restricted access to the Black Sea - the Turkey refuses to allow them to enter the Black Sea.
Britain is also reportedly considering decommissioning two Type 23 frigates due to a shortage of sailors.
Ukraine is also keeping an eye on these ships.
Ukraine still plans to bring the war directly back to Russia and is demanding appropriate weapons from the Western powers.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) may ultimately be right in his caution.
Current statements from the Ukrainian Admiralty are making people sit up and take notice.
The strength of Ukraine's naval forces has been a secret since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resulting independence of Ukraine, the Black Sea Fleet of the Soviet Navy was located on the territory of Ukraine - this smallest of the four Russian fleets was originally intended to be divided equally between Ukraine and the Russian Federation: the Armada comprising around 300 ships and boats as well as the buildings and port facilities.
Ultimately, Ukraine was left with only around 60 ships that were more or less in need of overhaul.
Crimean annexation: Ukraine's naval forces without ships and no chance of defense
Ukraine has so far failed to make or maintain a large number of them seaworthy.
Repairs were limited to the bare essentials or were only carried out to sell the ship.
Ukraine therefore had no chance of defending itself against the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and a significant number of personnel are said to have defected.
In the following years, a large new building program and numerous reforms were decided upon without having a decisive influence on the war.
In 1995, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed with then Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma that Sevastopol would remain a base for the Russian Navy and that Crimea's military infrastructure could be used by Russia.
The ice-free deep-water port of Sevastopol has been the fleet's main base ever since;
At the beginning of the war, around 80 percent of Russia's combat units were stationed there.
The minehunters, originally HMS Grimsby and HMS Shoreham, were renamed Chernihiv and Cherkasy in Glasgow in June 2023 and will help Ukraine maintain an important route for merchant shipping across the Black Sea.
Russia had attempted to mine the entrances to Ukrainian ports in and around Odessa and threatened to blow up civilian ships, but the effective use of missiles and naval drones by the Ukrainian naval forces has pushed Moscow's fleet further and further back.
However, the ships will probably only reach the Black Sea after the end of the war: at the beginning of January 2024, Turkey blocked the transfer of these two ships to Ukraine for mine clearance and banned them from crossing its waters on the way to the Black Sea.
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Ukraine War: Loss of Crimea is probably synonymous with Russia's defeat
Experts assume that the Ukraine war will no longer be winnable for Vladimir Putin after the loss of Crimea.
For Russia, Crimea is, firstly, a prestige object and, secondly, the bridgehead into the Black Sea, according to the online magazine
Dekoder
: “With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the new independence of Ukraine since 1991, the Black Sea Fleet and especially those stationed in Sevastopol Russian soldiers become an important factor of Russia's influence in Ukraine.
The Black Sea Fleet was the means and end of a Russian policy of exerting influence and preventing Ukrainian NATO ambitions.” The Black Sea Fleet also helps Russia to support the Assad regime in Syria.
Ukraine would win the war faster if it had permission to fire British and other Western weapons against targets deep inside Russia, Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neischpapa told
Sky News
;
In other words, exactly what the German government, for example, is trying to prevent.
In addition to using the Taurus cruise missiles held back by Germany, the commander of the Ukrainian Navy also wants to become operational at sea.
Without large ships of their own, the Ukrainian associations are trying in vain to fight Russian combat ships around Crimea and also to keep them away from the Ukrainian coast.
The greatest success of the Ukrainian naval forces to date was the sinking of the Russian missile cruiser Moskva in April 2022. “At that time, Ukraine realized that Moscow could be beaten in this war,” said the vice admiral.
He wants to take advantage of this momentum.
Recently, Ukraine has carried out several secret operations against Russian naval forces, with the result that Moscow has moved its important warships from Crimea to Novorossiysk.
Among other things, speedboats are said to have been used as sea drones, underwater drones and even jet skis.
The Russian headquarters in Sevastopol was also hit by a cruise missile.
“Our victories in 2022 and 2023 are based on innovative solutions,” said Neischpapa.
Power through innovation: Ukraine's navy relies on drones and autonomous submarines
He clearly sees these innovations in the automation of war: in drones.
In addition to an army of drones, the defenders are now also building unmanned submarines in order to finally outmaneuver Russia's Black Sea fleet.
Conventional warfare is simply unaffordable in the long term - on land as well as at sea.
Now Ukraine is launching a new offensive in its own country at the end of January: a hackathon under the heading “Offensive of the Machines” - the Ministry of Defense wants to bring together creative minds to find the best technological solutions to improve unmanned systems on the front.
The Hackathon “Offensive of Machines” is a joint event of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Strategic Industries and the Brave1 defense technology cluster.
However, this doesn't help much in the short term.
Britain, the United States and other allies only agreed to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles early last year.
Ukrainian forces have used them to attack targets in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, but not deep inside Russia;
Europeans fear an escalation of the conflict – a global conflagration.
Despite great criticism from opposition circles and even from within the government's own coalition, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), for example, is refusing to hand over Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, thereby possibly drawing Russia's wrath on Germany.
Discussing Germany: Chancellor defends himself against government and opposition
Even parts of Alliance 90/The Greens are now sharpening their knives against Russia.
The chairman of the Bundestag Committee for European Affairs, Anton Hofreiter (Alliance 90/The Greens), criticizes Olaf Scholz for his repeated hesitations about arms deliveries to Ukraine.
“The Chancellor is known for his resistance to advice and also for his long-term false analyzes of the Ukraine war,” the Green politician made clear to
Phoenix
.
Germany is “not even remotely living up to its role as a leading country” within the European Union, said Hofreiter.
This weakens the defense against Russia.
The danger of a Ukrainian attack on the Russian heartland appears to be real, because what Ukraine lacks is the ability to use long-range Western weapons such as the British Storm Shadow missile or American Atacms (Army Tactical Missile Systems) against military targets inside Russia to combat the evil directly at the root.
When asked by
Sky News
whether he believed Ukraine could win the war faster with such permission, the commander of the Ukrainian Naval Forces said: “Of course, the sooner our armed forces have the necessary combat assets and corresponding capabilities, the faster we will win to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure.”
Generous Britain: Two mine hunters are coming and possibly two frigates
Help may be coming from Great Britain again, as
The Telegraph
newspaper writes.
Afterwards, the British Royal Navy is so short of sailors that it reportedly has to decommission two Type 23 frigates, i.e. the “Duke class”, in order to man its new class of frigates.
This would reduce the size of the Duke class from eleven to nine ships;
According to information from defense and government sources, the frigates HMS Argyll and HMS Westminster, which were commissioned in 1991 and 1994 respectively, are at issue.
Neither the Royal Navy nor the British Ministry of Defense have yet responded to the claims.
Neischpapa emphasized to
Sky News
that he was closely following the retirement plans.
Britain has always been generous towards Ukraine, having so far pledged almost 5.5 billion euros in military aid and arms donations worth 2.7 billion euros a year since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 - but Britain has not yet published a plan how they want to proceed this year and the coming year.
However, the ships are already on Ukraine's wish list.
As Russia adapts, Ukraine must also adapt its strategy.
“A modern war is a war of technologies, and whoever wins in the technological sense wins,” concluded Neischpapa: “We would like to have the opportunity to dissuade Russia from ever setting its sights on Ukraine again. in this case also to the sea.”
(Karsten Hinzmann)