The Russian Black Sea Fleet has almost completely withdrawn from the temporarily occupied Crimea - the ships that currently remain in the fleet have relocated. However, most likely, the enemy will continue to try to find ways to get the ships out to sea again.
Dmytro Pletenchuk, Spokesman for the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told Apostrophe TV about why Russia would consider it necessary to send ships to the Black Sea again and about the current problem of the Black Sea Fleet.
He notes that the Russians have withdrawn most of the ships from the temporarily occupied Crimea, but now they have a problem:
"...now they have a problem, because the base in Novorossiysk is not adapted to support such a such a fleet composition."
He points out that most of the repair facilities and enterprises remained in the temporarily occupied Crimea, in particular in Sevastopol, Feodosia and Kerch.
"They tried to simply enter Crimea for repairs, but we "got" their ships when they were undergoing repairs," he comments, pointing out the following: "The Russian naval command cannot completely abandon Crimea, as the peninsula is the cornerstone of their presence in the Azov-Black Sea Region".
Dmytro Pletenchuk believes that the enemy will still look for ways to put ships to sea again:
"Despite our strike capabilities and the fact that their ships were pushed towards Novorossiysk, the enemy will still be looking for ways to get the ships out to sea. At least because they need to show something to the audience inside the Russian Federation, because it turns out that they are shouting everywhere that this is "their" sea, but they cannot even go to the eastern part of the Black Sea."
Given these intentions of Russia, Pletenchuk concludes that the enemy will continue to look for opportunities to counteract, at least to bring its ships to the eastern part of the water area.
"Therefore, they will look for any opportunities to counteract the Ukrainian Defense Forces in order to at least withdraw their ships in the eastern part of the water area," he points out, adding: "This story will be put to an end only after the liberation of Crimea from the occupiers."
Earlier "Apostrophe" reported that GUR destroyed Russian missile boat "Ivanovets" on a Lake Donuzlav in Crimea.