Russia Launches Attacks On Ukraine After Alleged Death Of Black Sea Fleet Commander

Russia’s warships kept launching attacks on Ukraine after Kyiv’s claim that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet (of Moscow) was killed in Friday’s mission, while Volodymyr Zelensky (the president) praised the arrival of the US Abrams tanks.

A spokesman associated with Ukraine’s Navy mentioned on national television on Monday that as Russia was going on launching attacks from the Black Sea, they seemed, in terms of comparison, like operations that involved a headless running chicken.

Right now, Russia’s Navy has lost the main individual who manages all of this, and also his staff, who used to manage the fleet along with him. It is a significant cluster that needs a huge number of managers to successfully run processes in a way that the fleet operates as one and a single mechanism, stated Dmytro Pletenchuk, Ukraine’s Navy spokesman.

Pletenchuk mentioned that Vladimir Putin doesn’t control the operation of vessels at sea and instead, he relies on admirals who know the means and forces, aligned personnel, how to manage them, and how to ideally deploy them.

Hence, from now onward, they are going to have respective issues with the troop’s control.

Pletenchuk’s comments came after Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces declared that Russia’s Admiral Viktor Sokolov, with 33 other eminent officers, lost their lives in the attack on Black Sea headquarters in Sevastopol on Friday, in what seems so far the most audacious attack by Ukraine’s forces against occupied territories of the Crimean peninsula.

Over 100 of Russia’s servicemen have been wounded in the special mission titled the Crab Trap. It was strategically timed to strike when the senior members of Russia’s Navy were meeting, per the Special Operations Forces.

Western arms supplies have played a vital role in aiding the severely outgunned forces of Ukraine and defending themselves against Russia’s ruthless attacks, as well as carrying out longer-range attacks beyond the front lines.

That has significantly angered Moscow, and over the weekend, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister also accused the US and other countries of being at war directly with Russia.

In the most recent arrival of weaponry, the first-ever batch of the US Abrams tanks reached Ukraine, Zelensky and the Pentagon confirmed on Monday.

The Abrams tanks serves as a powerful deterrent. By having the tanks in its arsenal, Ukraine’s military can effectively deter aggressive actions, per Major Charlie Dietz, Pentagon spokesman, on Monday.

These tanks are a much-awaited war capability for Ukraine. They add a very strong land component to the troops that have endured over a year and a half of the raging war.

President Zelensky also said that the tanks were geared up to reinforce brigades.

The US started training Ukraine’s forces on how to operate tanks in May 2023 in Germany. Currently, 31 tanks are destined for Ukraine and were refurbished and well-prepared for shipment for over several months, and the transfer was approved in the last month.

Attacks on port infrastructure

After last Friday’s attack on Sevastopol by Ukraine, a host of Russian attacks started hitting Odesa overnight on Monday and early Tuesday, per Ukraine’s officials.

Drones kept attacking Odesa for over two hours on Tuesday, damaging port infrastructure in the Izmail district, according to Oleh Kiper, head of Odesa’s regional military administration, based in Ukraine.

It came through just a day after Russia’s strikes took the lives of at least two individuals and resulted in significant damage to the whole city, Kiper explained. A victim was discovered under the rubble of a warehouse where the grain was kept, he added.

Ukraine’s military reportedly alleged that the Russian attack on Odesa can be perceived as a violation of international humanitarian law as it has targeted troops and civilian infrastructure, like energy supplies. Further, the defence forces said that the attack was a pathetic attempt to retaliate for the attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters.

Monday’s attack impaired the city’s port and its electrical infrastructure, warehouses, granaries, and private homes in the suburbs, per Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Office.

The Energy Minister of Ukraine said on Monday that approximately 1,000 users did not have electricity and a huge-scale repair campaign is underway.

Russian forces used advanced drones, several hypersonic missiles alongside cruise missiles as well as an Iranian-built sub in the assault, Ukrainian defence forces notified.

Reports suggest 19 drones and 11 missiles had been shot down.

The remains of the downed weapons destroyed warehouses, private homes, and barns via the hypersonic missile attack.

When asked to comment on the Odessa attacks, Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov had directed the questions to Russia’s Defense Ministry to talk about some particular military operations.

Moscow’s forces have been repeatedly attacking the southern port after the Black Sea grain deal ended in July 2023, which earlier permitted Ukraine’s vessels to bypass Russia’s blocking of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and sail via the waterway to the Bosphorus Strait (Turkey) to reach the global markets.

Many of the poorest nations of the world heavily rely on Ukraine’s grain, and Russia has also been accused of weaponizing the threat of global hunger in the war against its neighboring nation.

Russia’s forces bombed Kherson – a huge shipbuilding industry that lies along the Black Sea – with attacks that took the lives of six and wounded at least five on Monday, per Ukrainian officials.

A 70-year-old woman and a 73-year-old man were among those who lost their lives after Russia’s forces used four bombs on Beryslav, per Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson’s regional military administration.

In the past day, Russia’s forces have launched 87 attacks in Kherson, Prokudin informed, attacking the key residential areas, medical infrastructure, educational institutions, as well as other critical infrastructure.

Civilians have fled Russia’s bombing, and a quarter of the population only stays in Beryslav, per Prokudin.

Over the last two weeks, nearly 100 children, as well as their families, have left the coastal communities of Kherson, he said.

References: euro.eseuro.com, edition.cnn.com, albanyherald.com

Russia Launches Attacks On Ukraine After Alleged Death Of Black Sea Fleet Commander appeared first on Marine Insight – The Maritime Industry Guide

Source: Maritime Shipping News