Photo by Ukrainian Emergency Service/Anadolu via Getty Images
The involvement of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet shows it is still capable of carrying out large-scale attacks on Ukraine despite taking heavy losses.
Ukraine claims to have sunk, damaged, or destroyed at least a third of the Russian Black Sea Fleet since the start of the war — a notable success given that Kyiv doesn’t have a proper navy of its own.
Ukrainian military and security forces have relied heavily on domestically produced naval drones and anti-ship missiles to engage in asymmetrical warfare and curb the Russian naval threat.
The Ukrainian campaign has ultimately forced the Black Sea Fleet to disperse from its headquarters in the southwestern corner of the occupied Crimean peninsula and relocate to the eastern part of the region, closer to Russia, where the Kalibr missiles were fired from on Monday.
Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Ukraine’s air force, said in a statement that “all available weapons and equipment were used to repel the air attack: aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces of the Air Force, mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defence Forces and electronic warfare units.”
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said that the US is focused on providing Ukraine with critical air-defense systems and interceptor missiles to defend itself against such attacks in the future.
“Their air defense performed really well during these attacks,” he told reporters Monday. “Clearly, some things got through. But they knocked the majority out of the sky, and we have to make sure they can continue to do that.”