Russian military are being significantly impacted psychologically and operationally by Ukrainian attacks on Crimea, Western sources say.
More than half of the naval planes in the Black Sea fleet have reportedly been rendered inoperable by explosions at the Saki airfield on August 9 and subsequent attacks.
The navy has a proud past, but since the invasion started in February, it has endured a string of humiliations.
Officials said that the failures led it to take a defensive stance.
The cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the fleet, was sunk by Ukraine in March. The 510-crew missile cruiser’s sinking was a significant symbolic and military defeat since it had spearheaded Russia’s naval attack on Ukraine.
The Moskva’s munitions burst in an unknown fire, according to the Russian defense ministry at the time, and the ship turned over while it was being towed back to port.
The fleet had yet another setback in June when it was forced to depart Snake Island, a small outpost in the northwest of the Black Sea that Russia had taken on the first day of its invasion, after being subjected to heavy Ukrainian shelling.
Ukrainian soldiers have recently attacked the fleet’s base on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia invaded in 2014.
The bombing of Saki airfield on August 9 resulted in the destruction of at least eight fighter planes.
Numerous tourists were observed leaving the peninsula after the assaults, which had hitherto been free of hostilities. Three days after the incident, the BBC obtained images showing traffic backups on routes heading out of Crimea.
The attacks on August 9 were not the only ones in Crimea that seemed to be from Ukraine.
Russian authorities claimed that a Ukrainian drone strike caused Sevastopol’s Navy Day festivities to terminate in July. On August 16, explosions occurred at a weapons storage on the peninsula.
The fact that hundreds of Russian tourists observed explosions in Crimea, which was previously thought to be far out of the reach of any Ukrainian assault, and many of whom have now returned to Russia from Crimea, has had a psychological impact on Moscow, authorities told the media.
The unnamed Western officials said that the Russian Black Sea fleet had been reduced to nothing more than a coastal flotilla and that it was now forced to take a cautious stance as a result of Ukrainian strikes.
They noted that it is very improbable that Russia would be able to attack the port of Odesa in western Ukraine anytime soon.
In light of the assaults, Igor Osipov, the fleet’s commander, was reportedly removed, according to Russian official media on Wednesday. According to the RIA news agency, Viktor Sokolov, the new commander of the fleet, has met with senior military officers in the port of Sevastopol.
Additionally, Moscow seems to be attempting to re-arm its troubled fleet. According to state media, Admiral Sokolov informed a group of junior officers that they will be receiving 12 new ships, as well as more aircraft and ground vehicles, later this year.
According to Russia’s Tass news agency, he emphasized that the fleet had been “successfully executing all the duties designated for it” during the invasion.
However, UK defense sources said on Wednesday that the Kremlin’s intentions had been “undermined” as a result of the navy’s inability to fully annex the Black Sea.
According to them, the Black Sea navy has often maintained a “very defensive” attitude and stayed close to the Crimean shore.