Some 20 Russian naval vessels including six submarines are also patrolling the southern coast.įurther west, Russian warships and the forces now stationed on Snake Island are also enforcing a blockade on Odessa, Ukraine’s largest seaport.
The important Sea of Azov port cities of Berdyansk and Mariupol have since fallen to Russian forces. It closed off the Kerch Strait, which connects the smaller Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. In the early days of the current war, Russia’s navy moved quickly to enact a blockade of the Ukrainian coast. When Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces annexed the Crimean Peninsula, they also took over about 75 percent of Ukraine’s fleet, leaving it reliant on a “mosquito fleet” of mostly small patrol boats to defend its southern coast. Prior to 2014, both countries maintained naval fleets in Crimea under a treaty signed in the 1990s. Russia had an advantage in the Black Sea from the start. However, via naval power, the Russians have effectively turned Ukraine into a landlocked country.
NAVAL ACTION MAP REALITY FULL
That didn’t happen: The Russians have had their hands full in eastern Ukraine, and for now Odessa is under fire but in little immediate danger of conquest. When the invasion began, it appeared that one of Russia’s goals was to take the entire southern coast of the country, from Mariupol in the east through Odessa in the west to the Romanian border, cutting off Ukrainian access to the sea. And it’s not an exaggeration to say it could directly impact the lives of millions of people around the world.
Given the strategic and economic importance of shipping lanes in this area, the battle for the Black Sea may also be the key fight when it comes to Ukraine’s struggle to keep its battered economy afloat. It’s a front where - the sinking of the Moskva notwithstanding - Russian forces have had an easier time accomplishing their strategic objectives than their counterparts on land. It’s a key facet of the larger battle off the southern coast of Ukraine. The ongoing battle for Snake Island is more than just a meme. The incident took on greater significance two months later when the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, was sunk by Ukrainian anti-ship missiles. The stamp commemorated one of the iconic (if somewhat embellished) stories of the first day of the war in Ukraine, in which one of the border guards defending Snake Island, a small rock outcropping in the Black Sea, replied to the Russian cruiser Moskva’s demand that his men surrender with the now-immortal line: “Russian warship, go f- yourself.” In April, crowds in Kyiv waited in line, some for more than four hours, to purchase a special edition stamp issued by the Ukrainian post office depicting a solitary soldier flipping the bird at a naval vessel in the distance.
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