Currently, greatest military activity in Black Sea is demonstrated by Russian aviation, not fleet - Navy
In the Black Sea, the Russian fleet is now mostly represented by small boats that perform "anti-sabotage" defense tasks.
According to Censor.NET, with reference to Espreso, this was stated by the spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, Dmytro Pletenchuk.
According to the spokesman, the Russians now temporarily control the entire coast of the Azov Sea
"The Russian Federation even tried to somehow implement it into its legislation, to recognize the Azov Sea as its internal water area. According to their version, because of this, some of the norms of international maritime law should not apply to it. This is ridiculous, because stolen property does not imply a change of ownership," he said.
Pletenchuk noted that while controlling the coast, he cannot say that they control the water area, because no Russian ships have been observed there for more than a year.
"We don't observe it because the Ukrainian side, the Navy in particular, controls the water area with fire. The Russians have experienced this and know it very well. Yes, they use the sea for official purposes, and various vessels call at official and unofficial (occupied) ports. We prosecute some of them. It is actually very difficult, some ships with foreign flags enter Russian ports in the Azov Sea," the spokesman said.
In addition, according to him, Russian warships have been practically removed from the Azov Sea.
"In the Black Sea, the most active military activity is shown by aviation, not the navy. The fleet is now mostly represented by small boats such as Grachonok or Raptor, which perform anti-sabotage defense tasks. They are stationed at the entrances to harbors, such as Donuzlav or Sevastopol Bay. That's all the functionality they have. Surface ships do not dare to go out to sea to control anything. There are submarines, they go out periodically, but that's where the activity ends. This is interesting from the perspective of economics, the mathematics of war, the fact that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has a lot of personnel and this is the abyss into which they are forced to spend funding, but there is no result," Pletenchuk said.
