Russian Black Sea Fleet New Commander Is Hiding Ships

The Ukrainian captain told why the Russians took such a step.

There are no enemy ships in the Black and Azov Seas, the Ukrainian Navy reported on the morning of April 28. For what reasons and what to expect from the new commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Sergei Pinchuk, Defense Express naval expert, retired captain of the first rank Volodymyr Zablotsky explained on Radio NV.

“Based on the general situation, [Pinchuk] cannot do much. His task, apparently, really is to preserve the remnants of this fleet. Who knows how [the situation] will turn out later, as they think.

But it cannot be ruled out that the harsh peace conditions that will follow this war will deprive Russia of the right to have a Black Sea Fleet in general. This already happened once after the Crimean War.

Therefore, the commander is not particularly active. And he can’t actually do anything, because the ships he has are designed for what? They are geared towards the classic war of the past, and not the war of the future, elements of which we are already seeing.

He can fire at Ukraine with Kalibrs, but does not do this because he knows that Kalibrs, firstly, will be intercepted and shot down; and secondly, he does not want to risk the carriers of the Kalibrs, because this is, after all, potential. At peace negotiations, perhaps there will be some preferences if the fleet is preserved, but if not, then not.

By the way, the carrier ships were on combat duty. Two submarines came out and we recorded two launches of four Kalibrs, that is, eight missiles, six of which were shot down. Our Air Force command does not report about the other two, because perhaps they got lost somewhere or something happened to them.

The commander of the Black Sea Fleet (or better said, a flotilla, although formally it remains a fleet) does everything to hide and protect these ships; reserve for themselves, that is, for Moscow, the right to have some kind of argument in peace negotiations in the future.

We are also seeing not just an evacuation, we are seeing the transfer of ships (and this already says a lot) from a shipyard, for example, in Kerch to the Volga in Zelenodolsk. They transferred two small missile ships of the Karakurt type (these are future carriers of Kalibrs) there for completion. Because they don’t hope to retain, firstly, the Crimea, I think so, and even more so, because they have new problems every day, and besides, it’s dangerous.

Secondly, the evacuation of the property of the technical department of the Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol has been ongoing for the second month. The point is that it is impossible to ensure basing in the ports of the Caucasus, in particular in the occupied territory of Georgia, without spare parts, there’s the need to make repairs, and so on. And all this remains only in Sevastopol. But it’s dangerous in Sevastopol.

Therefore, they load it all onto landing ships, so they go there, taking risks, and take out everything they need — spare parts, components, etc. Perhaps the next one will be the evacuation of ammunition, fuel and other things.

This is what the Black Sea Fleet looks like now — it is already working on evacuation and this is good.