The special operation in Ukraine has been going on for a month. The army and pilots, the landing on Gostomel, the battles of the militia and special forces in Mariupol are heard. The role of the Navy remains behind the scenes – and completely in vain. What battles was the Russian squadron preparing for in the Mediterranean and how does it affect the ongoing operation right now?
The Russian fleet began its deployment long before the start of the operation. After scaring NATO a little off Ireland and the British coasts, the ships went to the Mediterranean, to join the Navy in the Mediterranean. A detachment of ships from the Pacific Ocean also came there. By the twentieth of February, Russia had two missile cruisers in the region – "Marshal Ustinov" and "Varyag" ("Moscow" remained in the Black Sea), the frigate "Admiral Kasatonov", two BOD, a number of weaker ships and several diesel submarines with "Calibers".
Containment in the Mediterranean
NATO could not remain indifferent. To meet our rather large forces, they brought out as many as three aircraft carrier groups, including one American. For some time, our fleet operated in several detachments - while the detachment of the Northern Fleet, led by Ustinov, maneuvered south of Sicily, the Pacific, together with the Mediterranean group, formed a powerful "fist" in the eastern Mediterranean, not far from Syria. The NATO ship groups, however, kept out of the range of our missile systems, a strike on them would require serious efforts.
A few days before the operation, a number of Russian ships passed the straits to the north, into the Black Sea. But the backbone of the group remained in Middle-Earth, in case of some kind of inadequacy on the part of the United States and NATO. If the escalation of the conflict had suddenly led to an attempt by the West to intervene, then Western ships would not have been able to enter the Black Sea so easily, they would have had to first withstand a battle with the Russian fleet and aircraft from the Khmeimim base. In such a battle, the West would have superiority in forces, but the price of any success for the United States and NATO would be very high, and the scale of operations that would be required to defeat Russian forces in the region would be simply enormous.
The West did not dare. Both before and after the operation, NATO fleets behave emphatically not aggressively.
On the night of February 24, all the ships of the Russian group gathered together east of Crete. If we had to accept the battle, it would be better to do it with united forces, having the Khmeimim in the rear. And then there was the president's speech, the same one.
Missile strike
In the early morning of the 24th, an audio recording of the Black Sea Fleet's radio exchange in Russian spread like wildfire in Western military analytical networks and public sites. Digital symbols from the table of conditional voice signals, coded call signs and the question: "Who else worked?". This went beyond what was the norm in peacetime, and it became clear that something was going on.
The President was announcing the start of a special military operation around this time. And a few minutes after the broadcast of his speech ended, the first "Calibers" entered Ukrainian airspace.
Despite the fact that aviation was used very limited in the first strike, the damage to the Ukrainian air defense was simply fatal. Ukraine has only scraps of air defense left, which will not live very long and which will no longer have a serious impact on the course of military operations.
A similar decisive effect was achieved when hitting headquarters and command centers. Attentive observers can see that Ukraine's operational level has completely "reset" in the actions of its troops.
Ukrainian troops simply resist on the spot where they are, there is no unified management of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, what is commonly called the word "operation", the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not carry out in principle. And it's not just like that. This is the result of a missile strike on the headquarters.
And the role of the fleet in the success of this strike was considerable. Yes, not only "Calibers" were used in the first wave of cruise and tactical missiles used against the AFU, but "Calibers" by virtue of their number in the volley were important. The Caspian flotilla also participated in the strikes, having recorded another military operation after Syria in its history. In the future, the importance of the fleet during missile strikes did not decrease. It persists even now.
The capture of Snake Island and the threat of amphibious assault
On the very first day, Russian ships, including the missile cruiser Moskva, appeared near the only Ukrainian island in the Black Sea – the Snake Island. It cannot be said that the Snake was somehow strategically important, but it was not irrelevant either.
Anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles could be deployed on this island. It would be possible to create a support base for Ukrainian missile and artillery boats, a reserve of mines that could then be placed from high-speed boats. In general, there could be a lot of problems. Romania could also seize the island, de facto annexing it and equipping all of the above, but already under the protection of NATO.
This did not happen, the Russian Navy occupied the island. First, the Russian ships demanded that the Ukrainian border guards surrender. Then, when the latter refused, a strike was launched on the island, presumably from the Su-24M naval aviation. And when the Ukrainian border guards raised their heads, they found that Russian soldiers had already landed on the pier from boats. The Snake garrison surrendered.
The story of the island also includes the episode voiced by Major General Igor Konashenkov with the attack of Ukrainian boats against Navy ships at Zmeiny. The attack was repulsed, as indicated, the Ukrainian boats were destroyed. If so, then we are talking about the first naval battle that was won by our Navy since the battle off the island of Nerva on the night of June 20, 1944.
A serious success of the Navy was also the demonstration of forces, regularly and still undertaken by a detachment of amphibious ships operating on the Black Sea. Regular demonstration of readiness for landing by the Navy detains Ukrainian troops in Odessa, preventing them from being transferred to another site: for example, near Nikolaev. The benefits of this can hardly be overestimated. In fact, here we are talking about what the Anglo-Saxons call fleet in beeing - the effect of presence, when the fleet has a considerable influence on the course of hostilities by the very fact of its existence.
Recently, Navy ships have been going with minesweepers, which is very similar to preparing for a real landing, because the enemy, if he is competent, will defend himself with minefields.
The enemy and his actions
From the very beginning, it was clear that the Ukrainian Naval Forces have a certain potential to harm Russia. Fortunately, these risks were not ignored, and at the very beginning of the operation, heavy strikes were inflicted on the Naval bases by both missile weapons and aircraft.
The losses of the Navy at the bases were significant, although their list has not yet been determined reliably. So, it is known for sure that the boat "Slavyansk", received by the Navy as a gift from the United States, was destroyed with losses in people. In general, most of the Ukrainian ships were destroyed at the bases, only the detachment destroyed at Zmeiny was able to go to sea.
In order to prevent their flagship "Hetman Sagaidachny" from falling into the hands of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainians themselves flooded it in Nikolaev. The boats stationed in Berdyansk never went to sea. At the same time, the Ukrainians blew up something in the port of Mariupol, perhaps also their boats. Now the captured boats have been moved to Novorossiysk.
The base in Ochakov, which promised to be a problem after the deployment of sabotage forces on it, was destroyed in the first hours of the operation, and the personnel, apparently, will disappear in battles as simple infantry. In this sense, the demilitarization of the Ukrainian Navy has turned out to be complete – the Ukrainian fleet has been destroyed. According to the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoy, the Ukrainian Navy "ceased to exist."
War on land and war at sea
It is possible that at the end of February, the Russian navy conducted a secret operation, about which no one reported anything. In particular, on February 26, it became known that the Nazis in Odessa were considering carrying out a terrorist attack with the use of toxic substances: specifically, blowing up containers with ammonia.
On the evening of February 27, the Navy issued a demand on the open channel for all merchant ships to clear the water area near Odessa, explaining this by conducting an anti-terrorist operation. Turkish social networks were indignant, asking themselves the question: since when has the Black Sea become a Russian lake, but the order was executed very quickly, all trade traffic shifted south within a few hours.
Soon, according to the statements of the Ukrainian side, the fleet detained two vessels at sea - the tanker "Athena" and the cargo ship "Princess Nicole". Both vessels were sailing under the Ukrainian flag. Nothing is known about their fate to this day, as well as about the probability of a terrorist attack now. A little later, on March 1-2, intensive flights of landing helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces were noted in the vicinity of Odessa, there is also a video. After that, the talk about a potential terrorist attack subsided. All this looks like the plot of an action movie – but this is reality, and the Ministry of Defense may one day tell about it.
Meanwhile, the Su-24M and Su-30SM shock troops of the 43rd Separate Naval assault Aviation Regiment joined in the execution of strike missions over Ukraine. Marines and fighters of coastal troops are fighting in the Mariupol direction. And even the dam on the way of water to the Crimea was blown up by naval sappers.
A few days ago, according to media reports, the ships of the Russian Navy supported the offensive of ground units in Mariupol with artillery fire from the sea. However, there is no photo or video from our side, there is only a foreign satellite image.
But there is a photo of a ship that fired at Ukrainian positions near Odessa – it was a frigate of project 11356, with a high degree of probability, "Admiral Makarov". And "Makarov" on the night of March 22, near the port of Ilyichevsk, hit with an anti-aircraft missile (all naval anti-aircraft systems can hit surface targets too) the Ukrainian diving vessel "Neteshin", from which they tried to plant mines. "Neteshin" was thrown ashore so as not to sink, the mine laying did not take place.
The Ministry of Defense has not yet announced the full list of dead servicemen of the coastal troops and marines, as well as the presence or absence of losses in naval aviation. In the meantime, another sad news has become known – in Mariupol, the deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Captain of the 1st rank Andrey Paliy, was killed. Alas, it is impossible to avoid losses.
And what does the enemy do? A warning was circulated that some of the anchor mines exposed by Ukraine to prevent the Russian landing in Odessa had been torn off the minreps and were now drifting with the sea currents. It was simply impossible to imagine a worse gift from Ukraine – now all shipping in the northwestern part of the Black Sea is under threat, and over time mines may be very far away.
The operation continues. As long as Turkey keeps the straits closed, not a single ship of a non-Black Sea NATO country will be in the theater of military operations, and the Russian Navy will operate freely. And whatever his further actions, he has already played an important role in the operation. The actions of the Navy are an excellent response to critics who like to speculate about the "continental power". Even if military operations are conducted on the ground, it is simply impossible to do without forces at sea. Ukraine is a vivid example of this.
Alexander Timokhin