Russia is cultivating an ancient military virtue in Crimea: camouflage, deception, and invisibility. The Black Sea Fleet continues to retreat.

Sevastopol – The behavior of Vladimir Putin's naval forces in the Black Sea currently appears „strange” – with its commanders playing hide-and-seek. Ukraine seems to be getting closer and closer to them. Ship after ship is lost and the Russian Black Sea Fleet resorts to drastic measures; And by the way in mothballs for passive warfare. The Black Sea Fleet is trying to escape from its captors, or at least hide. Ukraine continues to exert pressure on Crimea; And successfully, as British intelligence has now confirmed.

“Two Ropucha-class landing ships, two tanks and a Yuri Ivanov-class intelligence ship suffered collateral damage from Ukrainian attacks on a Russian communications center in Sevastopol, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the British posted on X (formerly Twitter),” she posted. British intelligence indicated that attacks of this type force Russian ships of higher tactical value to use other port infrastructure. The Russian Black Sea Fleet must once again ensure that it gets the land.

Sevastopol is slowly but surely slipping out of Russia's hands as a base in Crimea

Reports about this are increasing – some of them with strange content. At the end of last year, it became widely known that Russia was slowly but surely losing control of Sevastopol as a base in Crimea. For example, you write New Zurich Times: “Russia has recently transferred several warships from Sevastopol to ports further east on the Black Sea. This is shown by satellite images taken at the beginning of October, evaluated by an American naval expert. The flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” Admiral Makarov „, another frigate of the same type, all three operational Kilo-class submarines, six landing ships and a number of smaller ships are now in the port of Novorossiysk on the Russian Black Sea. Sea coast. Additional warships have been transferred to Feodosia, east of the Crimean peninsula.

This alone isn't worth a scowl, but Putin's admirals have been using brushes and paint for some time and imitating a trick that the German battleship Bismarck also tried to cheat its fate with in the early years of World War II: The Russian Navy is, by its standards, taking a radically new approach to protecting its most valuable warships. From the Ukrainian attacks. A deceptive camouflage scheme was used on the frigate Admiral Essen. This is an attempt to mislead Ukrainian drone pilots – and the success is open to speculation. After all, the magazine speaks Marine News The Russian Navy is trying to adapt to the new realities of war.

“Despite Russia’s attempts to limit its losses, Ukraine continues to demonstrate success in weakening the Black Sea Fleet’s capability and projecting its power in this region.”

The Admiral Grigorovich-class frigates of Project 11356P have been the mainstay of Russian attacks on Ukraine so far – each can carry eight Kalibr ground-attack cruise missiles and are therefore effective over great distances. They are generally equivalent to US Tomahawk missiles, and are often fired at targets deep inside Ukraine. Frigates like the Admiral Essen are considered the most powerful warships in the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and have served as flagships since the sinking of the cruiser Moskva relatively early after the outbreak of the Ukrainian War. Thus, the ships are a worthwhile target for Ukrainian attacks with unmanned weapons, which have so far proven to be extremely powerful.

The Russian Navy is now trying to better camouflage its ships at sea by breaking up their contours – for example by “colouring” their bow and stern gray to simulate a smaller class of ships – and this has also been tried with the Bismarck. Marine News He writes: “This combined deceptive and destructive elements of camouflage. The relevant deceptive part here was a false bow and stern painted dark. There was even a false bow wave and wake to match the apparent shortening of the hull. This was an attempt to confuse observers about the size of the ship and thus its identity On satellite images of Novorossiysk Admiral Essen's mask was then revealed, and the gray surfaces were not a reflection of light, but rather an unusual color scheme. Russia is on the defensive.

Russia is taking the threats more seriously, as ships have begun turning away from the Bosphorus Strait again

The Germans liked to use false perspective in their patterns during World War II. Parts of the hull and superstructure were painted from light gray to near black, and waves were painted on the bow and stern. The colors on the ship's ends contrasted with the rest of the hull and were intended to confuse the enemy's perspective of the ship's dimensions. The proposed waves on the steel were intended to make it difficult to obtain a clear picture of the ship's speed.

Russian ships appear to be acting more cautiously in the Black Sea after a series of Ukrainian drone strikes devastated the Russian Navy in the region, it was also reported. Newsweek: In a recent 'interesting incident', e.g Newsweek A group of Russian ships appeared to be approaching the Bosphorus Strait before unexpectedly turning back instead of heading to Russia-controlled Crimea, according to a Ukrainian navy spokesman. Newsweek mentioned. Russia had sent two ships to accompany other units, possibly cargo ships.

Ukraine appears to have taken control of the Black Sea

Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletinchuk said, according to the Ukrainian News Agency, that such escorts rarely occur, perhaps once a month. Union On Ukrainian television. “But at some point they turned around and went back. Because the motive behind the shift remained unclear, Pletinchuk speculated that the ship’s commanders may have been informed of a “threat.” Pletinchuk saw this as an appreciation of the ongoing jabs against the Black Sea Fleet. “These ships were forced to move,” he added. Along the Turkish border and practically hid in Turkish territorial waters, the spokesman added that they did not take the shortest route they usually take, but rather fled to their hideouts.

British intelligence said: „Despite Russia's attempts to limit its losses, Ukraine continues to demonstrate its success in weakening the capacity of the Black Sea Fleet and extending its power in this region.” Ukrainska Pravda. However, the appearance of Russian defense in the Black Sea is somewhat deceptive. Russia can still attack Ukraine from the eastern parts of the Black Sea; But the British Ministry of Defense continued to say that this development shows that Russian defense methods for mitigating Ukraine's unconventional approach to naval warfare are not working as intended. The Ukrainian war is approaching a turning point in Crimea.

It seems that Crimea has become a comfort zone for Russian naval officers

According to research conducted by ZDF The smallest of the four Russian fleets was already beginning to lose its fear as the Moskva sank: the ship operated without an escort, sailed without a main radar, and some hatches were wide open, even though they should have prevented the spread of fire to the ship. It is clear that the low state of materials and personnel remained even after that – with consequences when Russia's war against Ukraine reached its current catastrophic proportions. Despite initial plans to conduct a landing at Odessa, the fleet was arguably unable to effectively support combat Russian ground forces in February and March 2022 due to concerns about Ukrainian anti-ship missiles, such as ZDF He writes. The Russian Admiralty appears to have underestimated the ingenuity of Ukrainian engineers in building floating drones.