Due to shortage of vessels, Russia now patrolling Black Sea with submarines, military spokesman says
After Ukraine engaged and destroyed a number of vessels, the Russian military patrols the Black Sea with submarines, Dmytro Pletenchuk, the speaker of the Southern Defense Forces, announced on national television.
"In the Black Sea, they [the Russians] are now carrying out tasks with submarines. They have already developed a practice where these submarines replace each other in the morning," he said.
According to Pletenchuk, Russia has four submarines in the Azov-Black Sea region, three of which are carriers of cruise missiles. Two such submarines periodically go out to sea.
As for the Sea of Azov, the speaker noted, it is "safer" for the Russians there – they think so and are trying to organize a training process for their ships there. Currently, there are three large landing ships of the Russian Federation and three more small missile ships of the Buyan-M project in the waters of the Sea of Azov.
On May 23, 2024, Pletenchuk reported that the Ukrainian military had deprived Russia of the Kalibr cruise missile carriers in Crimea, but the enemy still has similar ships in the ports of Novorossiysk.
On May 30, Ukrainian military intelligence destroyed two Russian KS-701 Tunets boats using Magura V5 surface drones. Defense Intelligence stated that two boats could not be restored after being hit, and later clarified that four Russian Tunets boats were hit and two of them were destroyed.
