Ukraine says it successfully destroyed a Russian landing vessel in the Black Sea | DW News

Ukraine's military says it has destroyed another Russian warship in the Black Sea. It says the vessel sank near Alubka, a city on the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed 10 years ago. Kyiv says it used naval drones to sink the Caesar Kunikov, a large landing ship, saying it was in Ukrainian territorial waters at the time. This is the second time in two weeks that Ukrainian forces have claimed to have sunk a Russian vessel in the Black Sea. DW's Nick Connolly has more details from the Ukrainian authorities. had been rebuilt, had been made seaworthy again, that now seemingly no longer possible. We understand from these Ukrainian sources that basically a large hole was created on its left side and that has led to it taking on water and being beyond recovery. As for the rescue operation, we don't have any details now if those Russian sailors have been evacuated from that ship or not, but it's definitely a reminder that basically nowhere in these Russian-occupied waters off Ukraine is safe for the Russians right now. We've had more than 10 ships destroyed and many more damaged, and we're really seeing the Russians under pressure there. Let's bring in military analyst Mike Martin from the War Studies Department at King's College London. Mike, good to see you again. Now, if indeed confirmed, how big a blow would the sinking of this warship be to Russia's military might in the Black Sea? In and of itself, it's not a huge blow. It's a landing ship. But I think, you know, as Nick, your correspondent just said, this has to be seen within the context of a number of ships sunk by Ukraine. And this is the second ship sunk this month by Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called this a great victory for Ukraine. Let's look at the other side of things, then. Why is this such a crucial achievement for Kiev? Well, in 2014, the Russians captured most of the Ukrainian Navy, and so Ukraine basically does not have a navy yet. It's managed to sink 17,000 tons of Russian shipping, which is 50 percent more shipping than Russia has managed to sink of Ukraine's. So for a country without a navy to sink 50 percent more shipping of one of the world's largest navies is really an extraordinary achievement. Kiev claims to have destroyed up to a third of the Black Sea fleet. And it really appears that Ukraine finds it easier to put Russia on the back foot in the Black Sea than on the battlefield on dry land. What do you think is a reason for that? Well, the reason that over the last year Ukraine has really slowed down on the battlefield on land is because Russia had time to dig in very extensive defenses all along the front line. And these are multilayered and have minefields and so on and so forth, which has made it very, very difficult for Ukraine to make any progress whatsoever. And that, coupled with a lack of things like artillery ammunition, because Western supplies are dropping down, has made it much more difficult for Ukraine to make any progress on land. And attacks on the Black Sea fleet have been increasing. How come Moscow doesn't seem to see them coming, or at least cannot seem to find a way to prevent strikes? Well, a lot of these ships are quite old. So for instance, the landing craft that was just sunk was a Soviet era ship. And over the last 30, 40 years, there's been a big technological shift. Now, most of these ships are sunk, in fact, all of them, I think, are sunk by Ukrainian unmanned drones, which either skim the surface of the water or just go slightly underneath the surface. Now, a lot of these ships are configured to defend themselves from other ships or from submarines with torpedoes. And so really, they're playing catch up on what has been quite a recent advance, a technological advance in naval warfare. And that's why a lot of these ships are going down. And it's very hard for Russia to defend against this new technology. These underwater drones that you just mentioned, they have proven crucial for Ukraine. What can you tell us about how they function, how they're steered, how they're maneuvered? Well, the most important thing is that they're much cheaper than having your own ship and torpedoes or guided missiles. And the way they work is a bit like an aerial drone. It is effectively explosives with a propeller, and then you can steer them by encrypted radio link. And as you've seen, you're just showing it on the screen there. They've got cameras so you can record the strike, and that then gives you a propaganda value as well. And really, what, again, these enable you to do is because they're cheaper, they're more plentiful. So you can launch three, four, five, six, ten of these at the same time. And that adds to the difficulties that the Russians are having in intercepting them. So maybe not a huge blow to Russia's military might, but very much an embarrassing moment for the Russian army. How do you expect them to respond? The propaganda value is great. I think there's not very much they can do to respond in the naval domain. What I suspect we're probably going to see tonight is an extra big air raid with suicide aerial drones over Kiev or perhaps Odessa or another city. That's generally how the Russians respond against the Ukrainian civilian population when they're not able to mount a military response. That was a military analyst, Mike Martin. Always great speaking to you. Thank you so much for your analysis. Thank you.