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Irish Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Ukrainian commander's final dispatch: ‘I had hoped my service and sacrifices would be enough, but they haven't'
Today is the 1,199th day since Russia 's full-scale invasion of Ukraine , and this is my last of six columns for The Irish Times. I'm sorry I cannot provide a definitive conclusion. The war shows no sign of ending. At best we hope for a temporary ceasefire. We nonetheless received a tremendous morale boost six days ago, when more than 100 first-person view (FPV) drones smuggled into Russia by the Ukrainian intelligence service, SBU, damaged or destroyed 40 bombers at bases from Siberia to the Kola peninsula. The SBU estimates we caused $7 billion in damage and destroyed 34 per cent of Russia's strategic aircraft. It was the most important Ukrainian victory of the war, and it was stupendous. These aircraft have been used by Moscow to terrorise Ukrainian cities. They are part of Russia's nuclear capability, so the attack was also a lesson to western allies who've been intimidated by Vladimir Putin 's threats of escalation. It was a humiliating blow to Putin. One wonders what other special operations the SBU is planning. On June 3rd it staged its third attack on the Kerch Bridge, Putin's prestige project, inaugurated in 2018 to link Russia to occupied Crimea. READ MORE Operation Spider's Web gave us a surge of joy comparable to the sinking of the Moskva , the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, in 2022, or the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region of Russia last August. It may provide some respite to Ukrainian cities, and I hope it will change the narrative. Our allies always overestimate Russia's strength and underestimate ours. One of the principal tasks of the drone platoon I command, the Hellish Hornets, is to designate front-line targets for FPV drones. Based on our reconnaissance, drone pilots kill a couple of Russian infantrymen daily. We observe Russian bases and logistics farther behind the front line, but our infantry are often unable to strike them because shell hunger – the chronic shortage of artillery shells – continues. The SBU programmed the same type of drones, costing just a few thousand dollars each and with a range of 15-20km, to attack Russian aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars, on airfields thousands of kilometres away. Tiny drones were packed into hidden compartments in the ceilings of containers driven by Trojan trucks. The lids opened and drones flew out in attack mode. I don't know all the details, but I certainly agree with the British defence commentator who said the operation shows that Ukraine's armed forces are the most innovative in the world. In the Oval Office last February 28th, Donald Trump taunted President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with the words 'You don't have the cards.' Zelenskiy held his cards very close to his chest while he supervised the planning of Spider's Web over 18 months. Ukrainian memes and videos mock Trump now. In the weeks before Spider's Web, the Russians continued to ratchet up their bombardment of Ukraine. On the eve of our drone attack on Russian aircraft, they fired 472 Shahed-type attack drones at Ukraine – 100 more than the previous nightly record – and seven ballistic missiles. US president Donald Trump, right, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in the Oval Office on February 28th. Photograph: Doug Mills/The New York Times Near our house in a front-line town, a civilian was killed and several were wounded. Last week our previous billet, which I decided to abandon three months ago, was obliterated. On May 28th, Makar, a middle-aged soldier from my company, was burned over 80 per cent of his body when a Russian glide bomb set fire to his unit's house. He's in hospital in Dnipro and we don't know if he will survive. A prisoner exchange was the only tangible result of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on May 16th. The second session on June 2nd lasted only an hour but reached an agreement to exchange all prisoners under the age of 25, all who are seriously ill or wounded and 6,000 bodies. It was moving to see the famished, exhausted but joyous prisoners who were freed in May . The Russians had earlier tortured them psychologically by telling them they were going to be exchanged, then driving them back to prison. They didn't believe they were free until they saw Ukrainian flags and cheering people. The first thing they did was to call their family and say, 'Mom, I'm home!' I saw grown men crying. Trump has told European leaders that Putin isn't ready for peace because he thinks he's winning the war. Putin demands the lifting of sanctions, the disarmament and permanent neutrality of Ukraine, and even more Ukrainian territory than he has already seized. He wants unconditional surrender. We cannot accept that. Sometimes I think Ukraine is like a dog on a chain. The dog is fed enough not to die, but it is still chained. The owner of the dog is the West. I cannot see a path to a just, negotiated peace. We're preparing our society for the fact that the war won't end for as long as Russia exists in its present form. Putin is a dictator, but his death would not end the war, because Russia is more than Putin; it's a police state run by an intelligence service. Lt Yulia Mykytenko in Donetsk. Photograph: Julia Kochetova We've spent too much time and too many resources speculating about Trump, hoping he'll change. He kept threatening Putin with sanctions, but he never followed through and now he seems to have walked away from the conflict. I had to laugh when I read his May 26th post: 'I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people ...' Two US senators travelled to Kyiv to see Zelenskiy last weekend. I was encouraged by Sen Lindsey Graham's speech about a new package of sanctions that would badly hurt Russia. The sanctions Bill that Graham is promoting would impose 500 per cent tariffs on all countries who buy hydrocarbons from Russia. Graham is a Republican, and he won't bring the Bill to a vote unless Trump supports it. It's a long shot, but I need to have hope. It turns out the Europeans have paid Russia more for hydrocarbons since 2022 than they have given Ukraine in aid. They help fund the war by buying Russian gas and oil. Europe has not organised its defence industry, and the promise of a Franco-British security force is all but forgotten. Yet we have no option other than to trust the Europeans. They could be reliable allies if they wanted to be. They must decide if they want to be remembered as strong leaders who prevented a larger conflagration, or as appeasers. Putin may not want a ceasefire, but I think he overestimates his troops. On our section of the front line, the Russians hardly ever use armour, because we destroy it with FPVs. There are interviews with Russian soldiers on Telegram and YouTube and even on Russian propaganda channels. They say it was a mistake to join up for money. They say they are treated badly by their commanders and warn, 'Don't go there because you are going to die'. They are demoralised and they no longer see the point of the war. Zelenskiy said recently that Russia was recruiting 40,000-50,000 soldiers a month, compared with about 25,000 for Ukraine. They have to recruit a lot more because they lose a lot more, attacking all the time, all along the front line. In military academy they taught us that you lose three times as many soldiers on the offensive, but my impression is the Russians are losing five times as many as we are, because they don't hide or protect their soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers are exhausted, but we still know what we are fighting for. Despite my exhaustion, I am determined to protect my freedom and my family. I still believe that life is stronger than death. I will turn 30 next month. I must be careful not to gain weight. I need to be more active and eat less, take care of my skin. I just hope that maybe I will have a few years to live for myself, at last, and not for the army. Lieut Yulia Mykytenko with her younger brother, Bohdan, who intends to join Yulia's brigade this summer. Photograph: Yulia Mykytenko My little brother Bohdan will be eligible for the draft in a few months, when he turns 25. He'd rather join the 54th mechanised infantry brigade, where I've served since 2016, than be conscripted. Relatives can't fight in the same platoon, but I hope we'll be in the same company. Last September, Bohdan visited the Hellish Hornets in Donetsk and made himself useful repairing our vehicles. Of course, I will worry about him, but I believe every individual in Ukraine must protect himself and his family. I had hoped that my service and sacrifices – and the lives of my husband, my father and so many comrades – would be enough, but they haven't. Lieut Yulia Mykytenko's five earlier dispatches The Russians made them kneel in a line and shot them point blank The Americans have nerve, asking us to sacrifice teenagers Denys was skinny and muscular, with fair hair and blue-grey eyes. He was killed near Donetsk in February I think Putin is testing Trump, to see how far he can go and how many advantages he can get It may be extortionate, but I'd rather share our resources with US than Russia
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Best of Both Sides: Operation Sindoor, Spider's Web make it clear — the infantry needs and upgrade
The technological shock of World War I was the machine gun, which could cut down rows and rows of infantrymen from a distance in the battlefield. Combined with barbed wire and mines, it made movement across open land difficult and dangerous. The 21st-century equivalent of the machine gun seems to be drones, small and large, which have caused more casualties in the Ukraine war than any other weapon. Their widespread use spans reconnaissance, strikes, and logistics. Drones have not only altered the tactical battlefield but have had a strategic impact as well. This was demonstrated by Operation Spider's Web, through which Ukraine launched an attack across the geographic spread of Russia, destroying some dozen aircraft including strategic bombers. The real impact of the operation has been psychological. The calls in Russia for nuclear retaliation are a measure of the shock. Spider's Web can be compared to an earlier operation when Ukraine sank the Russian guided missile cruiser Moskva in the Black Sea in 2022. The ship was sunk by anti-ship missiles. But a Bayraktar TB2 drone played a key role as a spotter to aid the Ukrainian effort. Subsequently, the Ukrainians have used aerial and maritime drones to push Russian naval power out of much of the Black Sea. Just as the machine gun was used in combination with artillery, trenches, mines and barbed wire in WWI, so too are drones being used in combination with other elements like armour, artillery, air power and information as force multipliers. First Person View (FPV) drones, which give the operator a driver's view from the camera, have made the battlefront more transparent. The movement of infantrymen and armour across the battlefield has become very difficult. The use of drones and associated loitering munitions in the recent 80-hour conflict between India and Pakistan marks a new beginning for the Subcontinent. Their employment was nowhere as extensive as in the Ukraine war, but it certainly is a pointer to their future use in the region. FPV drones enable a concentration of fire with the use of swarms, even while your own forces remain decentralised. Their effectiveness is due to their low cost and enormous accuracy, and their ranges, which can be anywhere from 10 to 30 kilometres. This has made an area of 20 km on either side of the battlefront a zone of death. Movement, whether by tanks or individuals, is hazardous. A new and deadly innovation has been the use of fibre optic cables to guide the drones without being jammed. It can only be taken out if you kill the operator. But detecting him or her is a monumental task. All this has led to greater emphasis on concealment, dispersed formations and anti-drone measures like jamming, smoke screens, or netting. Infantrymen have now begun operating in small teams, which try to penetrate deeper across the battlefront with greater stealth and discipline. Clustering in open areas and using insecure communications can lead to needless casualties. It is, therefore, firepower that seeks to aid the push. This in turn means that the defenders must fight from prepared defences, ideally from deep or underground bunkers. None of this should suggest that the infantry is obsolete. It remains critical to execute close-quarters combat and execute manoeuvres that drones cannot replicate. FPVs have been used for precision strikes, reconnaissance and artillery spotting, but infantry units are still needed to seize and hold the ground. FPVs should be seen as tools that enhance infantry capabilities, not replace them. The idea of using the infantry en masse to charge across the battlefield was killed by the machine gun. Now, the FPV drones have made infantry hugely vulnerable through precise low-cost strikes, requiring greater emphasis on concealment and dispersal. The infantry needs to operate as part of a cohesive combined arms team, integrating armour, artillery, engineers and air support to maximise their effectiveness. There may also be a need to integrate anti-drone systems, including handheld weaponry like longer-range pellet guns so that the infantry can deal with the FPV threat. Drone operators need to be integrated into these forces at the platoon level and trained in the use of drones and counter-measures. Constructing effective fortifications and defending them need to become an essential part of drone-led warfare. Small-unit tactics, initiative and adaptability are crucial. High-quality junior and non-commissioned officers are, therefore, essential. In fact, the arrival of FPV drones should encourage the Army to reduce the size of the infantry, but make it more effective through higher training levels. The future of drone warfare needs to be seen along with the advances in autonomous systems, which will integrate the infantry more closely with robotics and AI. Human soldiers, however, will still be needed to hold the terrain, make decisions and deal with complex situations that machines won't know how to engage with. The writer is distinguished fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi
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Business Standard
03-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
With Russia airfield attacks, Ukraine aims for strategic and symbolic blow
While the full extent of the damage is still unknown, the operation shows how Kyiv has been able to adapt and evolve over the war using drones. Ukraine's drone attacks on airfields deep inside Russia on Sunday were strategic and symbolic blows that military analysts said were designed to slow Moscow's bombing campaign and demonstrate that Kyiv can still raise the cost of war for the Kremlin. After more than a year of planning, Ukraine was able to plant drones on Russian soil, just miles away from military bases. Then in a coordinated operation on Sunday, Ukrainian drones attacked five different regions in Russia. Some were launched from containers attached to semis, their flights captured on videos verified by The New York Times. Plumes of smoke billowed above one base. At another, strategic bombers were hit. Although the full extent of the damage is unknown, the attack, known as Operation Spider's Web, showed how Ukraine is adapting and evolving in the face of a larger military with deeper resources. Using drones, Kyiv has been able to push Russia out of much of the Black Sea, limit its gains on the front lines despite Ukraine's own troop shortages, and hamper Russia's ability to amass large concentrations of forces for major offensives. The operation on Sunday, along with extensive bombardments on Ukrainian cities by Moscow, also complicate ongoing efforts for diplomacy. Delegations from both sides met Monday for peace talks in Istanbul, with no breakthrough on a cease-fire announced. After the attacks, there were calls for a swift response across Russian media, and Ukrainians braced for retaliation even as they celebrated an operation that gave their beleaguered nation a much needed morale boost. Both sides have put out assessments that were not immediately verifiable. Ukraine said that 117 drones were used in the attacks and that 41 Russian aircraft were destroyed or damaged. Russian military bloggers played down the damage; the Russian Ministry of Defense said that Ukraine had attacked airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions, and that Moscow had thwarted attacks at three of the bases. The New York Times verified videos that showed successful strikes at Olenya Air Base in the Murmansk region and Belaya Air Base in the Irkutsk region, and damage to at least five aircraft, four of them strategic bombers. Even with limited information, military analysts said the operation ranks as a signature event on par with the sinking of the Russian flagship Moskva early in the war and the maritime drone assaults that forced the Russian Navy to largely abandon the home port of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. 'This is a stunning success for Ukraine's special services,' said Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute in London. 'If even half the total claim of 41 aircraft damaged/destroyed is confirmed, it will have a significant impact on the capacity of the Russian Long Range Aviation force to keep up its regular large scale cruise missile salvos against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, whilst also maintaining their nuclear deterrence and signaling patrols against NATO and Japan,' he said in an email. Mick Ryan, a retired Australian general and fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based research group, said that 'the proliferation of drones, open-source sensors and digital command and control systems means that long-range strike is now a commodity available to almost every nation state, and nonstate actor, with a few million dollars and the desire to reach out and strike their adversary.' Mr. Zelensky, in comments on Monday at a NATO meeting of Baltic and Nordic countries, said the operation showed Russia that it is also subject to serious losses, and 'that is what will push it toward diplomacy.' However, Mr. Ryan and other analysts cautioned that despite the nature of the attacks, they are unlikely to alter the political calculus of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who remains bent on achieving his war aims. The operation is part of an evolving campaign Behind Ukraine's operation was a basic goal: Kill the archer instead of trying to stop the arrows. It is part of an ever-evolving campaign by Ukraine to play offense rather than defense, by targeting Russian missile platforms on land, air and sea. In December 2022, nine months into the war, Ukraine executed one of its first ambitious attacks on Russian territory, targeting two airfields hundreds of miles inside the country using long-range drones. As the drone strikes expanded over the years, Russia adapted, building protective structures around fuel depots at the bases, bringing in more air defense assets and routinely repositioning its fleet. Ukraine needed a new plan if it hoped to inflict serious damage. They came up with 'Operation Spider's Web,' which Ukrainian officials said was overseen personally by Mr. Zelensky and managed directly by the head of the S.B.U., Vasyl Malyuk. The idea was to bring small, first-person-view, or FPV, drones close enough to the airfields to render traditional air defenses systems useless. The Ukrainians on Monday offered an unusually detailed public account of the operation. Over the course of many months, they said, dozens of FPV drones were transported into Russia; the scale of the operation could not be independently verified. Mr. Zelensky claimed they set up a base of operations at a warehouse close to a regional headquarters of Russia's domestic intelligence agency, known as the F.S.B. Once the drones were smuggled into Russia, they were packed onto pallets inside wooden transport containers with remote-controlled lids and then loaded onto trucks, the S.B.U. statement said. There was no indication that the drivers of the trucks knew what they were hauling, Ukrainian officials said. Mr. Zelensky said that all of the Ukrainian agents involved in the operation had made it safely out of Russia before the operation commenced, a claim that could not be independently verified. The Russian government, in a statement on Sunday, said that some of those involved in the attack had been detained. Ukraine planted drones inside Russia One video verified by The Times shows a drone approaching Belaya air base before a strike. Other verified footage shows two drones launched from containers mounted on the back of a semi-truck less than four miles away. They fly in the direction of large smoke plumes now rising from the base. Footage recorded shortly afterward shows the same containers ablaze, their tops beside them on the ground. Ukrainian officials said in their account that the transport crates were rigged to self-destruct after the drones were released. Another video verified by the Times shows drones flying less than four miles from the Olenya air base. The man recording it suggests that the drones had been launched from a truck parked just down the road. The Times could not confirm that the drones in the various videos were part of the assault. In its assessment, Ukraine said the 41 planes accounted for 34 percent of the strategic cruise-missile carriers at air bases across three time zones. The Times was able to verify that four TU-95 bombers and one Antonov cargo plane were hit. Russian military bloggers claimed the Ukrainian damage estimates were inflated. One influential Russian military blogger, Rybar, run by Mikhail Zvinchuk, put the number of damaged Russian aircraft at 13, including up to 12 strategic bombers. Another one, Fighterbomber, believed to be run by Capt. Ilya Tumanov of the Russian Army, said in a post on Monday that only 'a handful' of strategic aircraft were hit, but even such a loss was 'huge for a country that doesn't make them.' Col. Markus Reisner, a historian and officer in the Austrian Armed Forces, said that the best Western estimates suggest that Russia had slightly over 60 active Tu-95s and around 20 Tu-160 bombers. 'Replacing losses will be very challenging,' he said. Ben Hodges, a retired general who commanded the U.S. Army Europe, said the available evidence suggests that the operation put a 'real dent' in Russia's ability to launch large salvos of cruise missiles. 'The surprise that they achieved will have a shock on the system as the Russians try to figure out how these trucks loaded with explosives got so deep inside of Russia,' he said. The attack raises new risks Mr. Zelensky said the attack was not only designed to undercut Russia's ability to bombard Ukrainian cities but to increase pressure on the Kremlin to accept an unconditional cease-fire. 'It was the Russians who chose to continue the war — even under conditions where the entire world is calling for an end to the killing,' he said in his nightly address to the nation. 'And pressure is truly needed — pressure on Russia that should bring it back to reality.' There was no indication that the attack had changed the Kremlin's belief that it holds an advantage over Ukraine, counting on the weakening resolve of Kyiv's allies and its ability to grind down vastly outnumbered Ukrainian forces. There was also the risk that Ukraine's allies would be rattled by the attack and the general pattern of escalation in recent weeks as Russia steps up its own bombardments. But Mr. Ryan said the strikes also show how Ukraine is evolving so that it is less reliant on U.S. intelligence in the event of 'shut offs' like earlier this year. The operation, he said, demonstrates 'how success in war is biased toward those who learn and adapt the quickest.'
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine's drone attack the latest in a series of daring David versus Goliath hits against Russian targets
Ukraine's large-scale drone attack on Russian air bases thousands of miles behind the front lines is the latest in a long line of daring missions by Ukraine's forces against its giant neighbor. The operation, more than a year and a half in the making, involved drones being smuggled into Russian territory and hidden in wooden mobile houses atop trucks, according to a source in the SBU, Ukraine's domestic intelligence agency. The strikes caused an estimated $7 billion in damages and hit 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers at its main air bases, the source said. The assault also showed that Ukraine still has the ability to pressure Russia even as Moscow ramps up its own attacks and offensive operations. Here's a look at some of the Ukrainian force's most significant hits during the war: Analysts have called Ukraine's Sunday drone attack on the bomber bases the most significant by Kyiv since the beginning of the war. More than 40 aircraft were known to have been hit in the operation, according to an SBU security source, including TU-95 and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers and one of Russia's few remaining A-50 surveillance planes. The Tu-22M3 is Russia's long-range missile strike platform that can perform stand-off attacks, launching missiles from Russian airspace well behind the front lines to stay out of range of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire. Russia had 55 Tu-22M3 jets and 57 Tu-95s in its fleet at the beginning of the year, according to the 'Military Balance 2025' from the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank. The Tu-95 joined the Soviet Union air force in the 1950s, and Russia has modified them to launch cruise missiles like the Tu-22. Military aviation expert Peter Layton said the loss of the bombers, which could carry the heaviest and most powerful cruise missiles, mean Russia will need to rely more on drones for future attacks on Ukraine. Outside the immediate air war, the attack on the air bases will be a major distraction for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, now a military analyst in Hawaii. 'Putin will direct more resources to internal security after such a domestic security failure,' Schuster said. 'Ukraine was able to deploy dozens of containers with drones to within line of sight of major Russian strategic bases and launch massive air strikes. Can you imagine explaining that one to Putin?' One of Ukraine's first major wins was the sinking of the cruiser Moskva, the pride of Russia's Black Sea fleet, in the early months of war. The Moskva was one of the Russian Navy's most important warships and its sinking represented a massive blow to Moscow's military, which at the time was struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Putin's invasion. In April, 2022, Ukraine's Operational Command South claimed the Moskva had begun to sink after it was hit by Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles. Russia, meanwhile said a fire broke out on the guided-missile cruiser, causing munitions aboard to explode, inflicting serious damage to the vessel, and forcing the crew of the warship to be evacuated. Analysts said its loss struck hard at the heart of the Russian navy as well as national pride, comparable to the US Navy losing a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today. What followed was a string of naval defeats for Moscow's Black Sea Fleet. In early 2024, six sea drones, powered by jet skis, felled a Russian guided missile ship, the Ivanovets. Night-time footage released by the Ukrainians showed Russians firing at the drones as they raced toward the Ivanovets, before at least two drones struck the side of the ship, disabling it and causing massive explosions. Built following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, the 12-mile Kerch bridge was a vital supply line for Moscow's war effort in Ukraine and a personal project for Putin, embodying his objective to bind the peninsula to Russia. Russia built the bridge at a cost of around $3.7 billion In July, 2023, Ukrainian security services claimed to have blown up the bridge using an experimental sea drone. The attack caused damage to the road lanes of the bridge, and, according to Russian officials, killed two civilians. The head of the SBU, Vasyl Maliuk, told CNN at the time that the Kerch attack was a joint operation with the Ukrainian navy. The bridge is a critical artery for supplying Crimea with both its daily needs and supplies for the military. A number of high profile Russian military figures have been killed inside the country over the past year. Crucially, Ukraine has never claimed the killings but it is notable that many of those killed played prominent roles in Moscow's . Last month, Russian deputy mayor and prominent veteran of the war, Zaur Aleksandrovich Gurtsiev, was killed in an explosion in southern Russia. Russian authorities said they were investigating all options into the killing, 'including the organization of a terrorist attack' involving Ukraine. Gurtsiev had been involved in the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which destroyed about 90% of residential buildings, according to United Nations estimates. Gurtsiev had 'introduced his developments in the technology of targeting missiles, which allowed them to increase their accuracy and effectiveness many times over,' according to the 'Time of Heroes' program. In April, Russian authorities charged a 'Ukrainian special services agent' with terrorism, after he was detained in connection with a car explosion that killed Russian General Yaroslav Moskalik, the deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. And in February Armen Sarkisyan, the founder of a pro-Russian militia group in eastern Ukraine – described by authorities in Kyiv as a 'criminal mastermind' – died following a bombing in central Moscow. The bombing took place in an upmarket residential complex in the capital city, Russian state media outlet TASS reported at the time. Ukraine has never claimed the killings but it is notable that high-profile figures have been assassinated in Russian territory.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine's navy responds to reports US was 'angry' at sinking of Russia's Moskva Black Sea flagship
Ukraine's navy has refused to confirm that there was "anger," "surprise," and "panic" among the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden after Ukraine sunk the Mosvka, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in April 2022. Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said he "cannot confirm this information in any way," insisting there were multiple factors other than U.S. intelligence that played a role in one of Kyiv's most significant early victories in the full-scale war. "At that moment — it was the outset of a full-scale invasion — in fact, the situation was quite dynamic and depended on many vectors, many decisions, both on land and at sea," he said on national TV. The Moskva sank on April 14, 2022, after being struck by two Ukrainian R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles, leading to the total loss of the $750 million vessel and an unknown number of casualties from its crew of 500. Russia has tried to cover up their fates and downplay the ship's significance. That wouldn't be so easy. Moskva was the first Russian flagship to be sunk since the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War. It played a key role in Russia's naval assault on Ukraine at the start of the 2022 invasion, and helped provide air cover for other Russian ships in the Black Sea and capture Snake Island. According to the New York Times, American and Ukrainian naval officers were on an intelligence sharing call when the former noticed the ship on radar screens. "Oh my God. Thanks a lot. Bye," the Ukrainians reportedly replied. The U.S. was reportedly taken aback by the attack because Ukraine hadn't given notice of their attack plans in advance, nor was the U.S. aware that Ukraine possessed the kind of weaponry capable of sinking a warship, according to the New York Times. The Biden administration also didn't want Ukraine to attack "a potent symbol of Russian power," highlighting the delicate balance Washington has maintained since the war's outset — arming Kyiv while trying to avert a broader confrontation with Moscow. The sinking marked a major Ukrainian victory in the full-scale war, and dealt a major blow to Russia's Black Sea fleet. Famously, it was the same ship that weeks earlier ordered Ukrainian marines on Snake Island to surrender, only to be given their now-iconic reply: "Russian warship, go f*ck yourself." The phrase has been immortalized in Ukrainian culture in a myriad of ways including the issuing of a special series of stamps. Read also: As Ukraine, Russia agree to ceasefire at sea, Moscow's battered Black Sea Fleet is set to get a reprieve We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
