Ukraine’s Armed Forces hit large landing ships Yamal and Azov of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, the city in Russian-occupied Crimea.
According to Ukraine’s military, Ukraine also targeted a communications center and several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the late hours of 23 March.
The Russian-appointed governor of annexed Sevastopol said that the attack on Sevastopol was “the most massive in recent times.” He said Russian Air Forces shot down more than ten missiles.
Ukraine recently increased its long-range strikes with drones and cruise missiles on the Black Sea Fleet to push Russian ships further away from the Ukrainian coast. It led to substantial vessel losses for Russia in the Black Sea.
Ukrainian forces have disabled approximately 33% of all combat ships in the Russian Black Sea Fleet since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to the Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The recently reported sink was the corvette Sergey Kotov on 5 March and the landing ship Caesar Kunikov on 14 March.
The British Defense Ministry reported on 20 March that Russian forces “have highly likely been making efforts to increase and improve their employment of maskirovka techniques” in an effort to mitigate heavy losses suffered over the past two years by the Black Sea Fleet and Aerospace Forces.
However, the reports said that “despite these attempts at concealment, Russian aircraft are still vulnerable to conventional shootdowns while in the air, and Russian vessels are still vulnerable while on operations in the Black Sea.”
The British Defense Ministry reported that “it is unlikely that the use of maskirovka techniques will lead to any significant reduction in losses.”
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