Russia 'Hiding' Navy Behind Crimea Amid Intensifying Attacks: Kyiv

Ukraine's intensifying naval drone offensive against Russian shipping in the Black Sea is forcing Moscow to hide its ships behind Crimea or in heavily protected ports, according to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Navy.

"The Russians are now trying to avoid a collision with Ukrainian naval drones," Dmytro Pletenchuk told journalists at a briefing on Tuesday organized by the Media Center Ukraine Odesa, on the Black Sea coast.

"They feel the danger and are hiding either behind Crimea or in the bays of ports, where they are protected by 'boom barriers,'" Pletenchuk added.

"They are also hiding near the second base of the Russian Black Sea Navy, Novorossiysk. [The] Russians also stopped using large landing ships to transport civilian cargo, because it is an attractive target for naval drones."

Moscow is introducing new measures to protect the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Crimea to western Russia, Pletenchuk said, following recent drone and missile attacks.

Previously, Russian border guards and the Federal Security Service (FSB) had been using between one and three ships to screen potential attacks, the spokesperson added.

"Now there are five to six boats and five to six ships of the FSB Guard constantly there," he said. "Sometimes they involve warships, for example, the patrol ship Pytlyvyi." Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email to request comment.

Despite its lack of a conventional navy, Ukraine has kept the Black Sea contested throughout Russia's full-scale invasion of the country. Asymmetric naval warfare has inflicted high-profile defeats on the Russian Black Sea Fleet operating out of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, which has been launching cruise missiles against Ukrainian cities and enforcing an intermittent naval blockade.

The most notable Ukrainian success was the sinking of the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva in April 2022 using shore-based anti-ship missiles. Kyiv almost claimed the fleet's flagship successor—the Admiral Makarov—in October 2022 when naval drones attacked and damaged the frigate.

More recently, Ukrainian naval drones hit the Ropucha-class Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship anchored in Novorossiysk, and soon afterward they struck the oil tanker Sig off the coast of Crimea. Both were seriously damaged and had to be rescued by tugboats.

Ukraine won the battle for Snake Island—a small but strategic outpost close to the Romanian coast—by making it untenable for the Russian troops, who had seized the outcrop in the opening stages of the invasion.

Kyiv has steadily increased the tempo of naval and aerial drone attacks—some successful and others not—on Russian military and facilities in Crimea. Such attacks, according to the British Defense Ministry, forced Moscow to relocate its Kilo-class submarines to the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

Ukrainian commando teams are now launching small-scale raids on the Crimea coastline, reportedly hunting valuable Russian missile sites and defensive equipment. The Kerch Strait Bridge—the crowning achievement of President Vladimir Putin's seizure of Crimea—has also been repeatedly attacked, including by naval drones.

Kyiv's unmanned maritime kamikazes pose a particular problem for Russian vessels. A recent CNN report found that the latest versions of the weapon weigh up to 2,200 pounds and can carry an explosive payload of up to 661 pounds. The vessels have a maximum range of around 500 miles and top speed of 50 mph.

Mykhailo Fedorov—who oversees Kyiv's drone research in his roles as vice prime minister for innovation, education, science and technology development, plus as minister of digital transformation—told Newsweek in August that the growing autonomous fleet "serves for conducting special operations, and for sure it has its role in the liberation of the temporarily occupied Black Sea coastal area."

Andriy Ryzhenko, a retired Ukrainian naval captain and now a strategic expert at the defense and logistics consultant company Sonata, told Newsweek that the "unsinkable aircraft carrier" of occupied Crimea is "the biggest problem for Ukraine in the northwestern part of the Black Sea."

Ukrainian anti-ship missile batteries on the Black Sea coastline now prevent Russian ships approaching to within 155 miles of ports like Odesa, but "they still dominate in the air," Ryzhenko said.

"They are using their aviation, missiles—often Kalibr missiles—and Shahed kamikaze drones and now are intensively attacking our polls in the Odesa area and in the Danube area."

Drones, while "a game changer," do not have "everything we need," Ryzhenko said. "Drones are effective when used with the element of surprise, but this was lost after their first deployment."

"It takes quite a long time for drones to travel to the area of attack," he added, noting it takes the unmanned vessels some 10 to 12 hours to reach the Russian port at Sevastopol, 18 to 20 hours to reach the Kerch Strait Bridge, and 24 hours to reach the Russian port at Novorossiysk.

"It means they are most effective on fixed, non-moving targets," Ryzhenko said. "Enemy missile boats are always on the move or in well-protected harbors."

Kyiv, he added, needs vessels capable of "missile strikes, capable of conducting amphibious and special operation raids...this is primarily what we need."

Since before Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv had been working with the U.S. to acquire Mark IV patrol boats and with the U.K. to acquire P50-U attack craft. "I believe it's time to intensify these projects for Ukraine," Ryzhenko said.