Ukraine Will Receive Warships to Ensure Safety in Black Sea's Grain Corridor, Zelenskyy Says
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We have already made specific arrangements for receiving the ships. This is a matter of the near future."
More details: Zelenskyy said Odesa Oblast will be protected by additional air defence systems, which have already been agreed upon with Ukraine’s partners.
Quote from Zelenskyy: "Very specific systems and a very specific request have already been sent by [our] partners, and I can say that it has already been agreed.
Soon, this oblast will be protected by very powerful air defences.
It’s not just the ships that are important to us, but also the people who live there."
Ukraine to receive warships to help protect its Black Sea grain corridor
Ukraine will get warships from its partners to ensure the Black Sea grain corridor safety, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Ukrainska Pravda, answering the outlet’s question at the Grain from Ukraine conference in Kyiv on Nov. 25.
“We have reached agreements with our partners and will accompany ships at sea to ensure their safety. We have already made concrete arrangements to receive the warships. This is a matter of the near future,” he said, adding that Odesa Oblast will be protected by additional air defense systems.
Zelenskyy considers the creation of a grain corridor without Russia as one of the greatest achievements of the year.
Read also: How much grain Ukraine exports after Russia’s withdrawal from grain deal – expert interview
Ukraine has independently established a grain corridor in the Black Sea, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna, said during a briefing at the representation of the European Commission in Vienna on Nov. 23.
“So, we provided the ‘grain corridor’ ourselves, and the grain vessels are now liberated,” said Stefanishyna, adding that the United Kingdom has established a special insurance fund to ensure the corridor’s operation.
- 100 vessels have passed through the temporary grain corridor in the Black Sea, it was reported on Nov. 13.
- The Ukrainian Navy announced on Aug. 10 new temporary routes for the movement of civilian vessels to and from Black Sea ports after the cessation of the grain agreement involving the UN, Turkey, and Russia in July.
Read also: Slovakia hesitant to lift ban on Ukrainian grain imports
Russia could attack civilian ships carrying Ukrainian grain by placing sea mines at approaches to Ukrainian Black Sea ports, UK intelligence stated on Oct. 5.
The government declared on Oct. 26 that the temporary corridor for the movement of civilian vessels to and from the ports of Odesa continues to operate, refuting information about its suspension.
Russian occupiers in Crimea have been transferring ships of the Black Sea Fleet to the port of Novorossiysk for several months after systematic attacks on Russian military ships, Ukrainian intelligence reported.
Russia is gradually losing control over the Black Sea and retreating to the eastern part of the waters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Nov. 2.
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H I Sutton Image Used with permission
Last year, Ukraine put out an unusual crowdfunding request. It aimed to build 100 sea drones, which it would use to attack Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and ports.
Ukraine needed to protect its waters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram in support of the United24 campaign, which had a goal of $25 million – enough to purchase 100 drones, at $250,000 a piece, USNI News previously reported.
Ukraine by no means invented lethal surface drones but the country has found new ways to use them in a conflict. Ukraine, a country without a naval fleet, has used drones and other missile strikes to largely stave off attacks from the Black Sea Fleet while slowly dismantling Russia’s dominance over the Black Sea.
Ukraine needs to dismantle the Black Sea Fleet, Markarova said, to protect its citizens and also to better allow for the country to export grain and foodstuffs, which bolster the economy. Russia pulled out of the grain deal in July, with Ukraine opening up a humanitarian corridor in August for grain ships. The 100th ship has passed through as of Monday, Ukraine announced.
That’s where the Ukrainian drones come in. It is the story of David and Goliath, Kyiv Independent reporter Francis Farrell said on the paper’s podcast. A country without a navy is taking down a sophisticated Russian fleet that should be maintaining dominance in the Black Sea.
“And then you could already tell that in case something’s changing here, the whole idea of what a naval contest is changing and the whole point the whole basically legitimacy of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is now seriously under question,” Farrell said on the podcast.
Over the past year, Ukraine has used drones to attack the Russian Black Sea Fleet, at times pushing Russia to withdraw the fleet from its naval base in Sevastapol, Crimea, to Novorossiysk, a Russian port city farther from Ukraine. Even Novorossiysk is not safe from the drones, Farrell said, leading Russia to consider building a shipyard in Georgia.
“That Sevastopol, this great pride of Russian military history of Russian, kind of Crimea mythology, it’s now becoming untenable for the Russian Navy, and we see that very simply through the satellite images of how Russia is slowly withdrawing the bulk of their fleet,” Farrel said on the podcast.
The most recent attack, Nov. 10, saw Ukraine say it hit two Russian landing crafts near Chernomorske, Crimea, CNN reported.
In the case of the terror attack on USS Cole (DDG-67), suicide bombers guided their attack craft into the target. The advantage of uncrewed drones is they come at a relatively low cost compared to the damage they cause.
What Ukraine has done is take the idea of the explosive unmanned vessel into the 21st century, Savitz said.
“Ukraine has done an outstanding job of achieving a measure of sea denial within areas of the Black Sea,” he said. “In the absence of warships, it’s not able to control the sea, but it has shown how, with use of these explosive un-crewed surface vehicles, that it’s able to either attack warships at sea, or attack them in port, and thereby compel the Russian Navy to retreat, first, into ports that are further afield within Russia proper as opposed to Crimea.”
- Russia has kept its ships away from Ukrainian shores because of Ukraine’s drone and missile strike capabilities.
- Both countries also have shown restraint in attacking each other’s commercial ships, Savitz said.
But before the drone strikes that have defined Ukraine’s attacks on the Black Sea Fleet began, the conflict was defined by a Cold War warship.
April 2022
Illustration for Snake Island stamp
Early on during the Russian invasion into Ukraine, the former RTS Moskva sailed by Snake Island as Russia looked to forcibly take the Ukrainian-claimed island. A Ukrainian soldier told the ship to “go fuck yourself,” stirring up a morale victory for Ukraine, despite the loss of the island. The incident was memorialized on a stamp.
But in April, Ukraine uses two Neptune missiles to attack and sink Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. USNI News found that Moskva was unprepared and blind to the Ukrainian attack, leading to its sinking.
RTS Moskva (121) following an April 13, 2022 strike from Ukrainian missiles. Russian MoD
USNI News contributor H I Sutton also reported that in March 2022, Ukrainian missile strikes hit a Russian Raptor-class assault boat and the Alligator-class landing ship Saratov, which damagee two other Ropucha-class landing ships.
June 2022
Screenshot from United24 website.
Sutton reports that Ukraine strikes and sinks the Russian ship Vasiliy Bekh. Newsweek lists the ship as destroyed in the war.
July 2022
Grain deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations to allow Ukraine to ship grain and foodstuffs from three Ukrainian ports.
Ukraine uses unmanned aerial vehicles to attack Sevastapol. Ukraine retook Snake Island in July, helped by the sinking of supply ship with a Harpoon missile.
September 2022
In September, Ukraine used British cruise missiles to attack Russian submarines in Sevastapol, as well as the Black Sea Fleet headquarters, the Atlantic Council reported. This likely prompted Russia to move its submarines out of Sevastapol, USNI News reported.
October 2022
H I Sutton Image used with permission
By the end of the month, Ukraine had used nine drones to strike Sevastapol, according to the BBC. The attack prompted Russia to temporarily withdraw from the grain deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations. Russia rejoined a few days later.
New Black Sea Fleet flagship Admiral Makarov is damaged in the Oct. 29 strike, The Kyiv Independent reported.
Ukraine also attacks the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to Russia. While Russia attributed the attack to a truck bomb, forensic maritime experts have suggested unmanned surface vehicles may have been involved, Savitz said.
November 2022
After the attacks in Sevastapol, Russia pulled its fleet from the port city and sent it to Novorossiysk to avoid Ukrainian drone attacks. That same month, Ukraine began its crowdfunding campaign to buy 100 more maritime drones.
December 2022 to February 2023
Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles. Ukraine MoD Photo
Over the winter, as the war rolled into its second year, the Black Sea mostly remained quiet as a stalemate played out. There was a January Russian attack in which Russia launched antiship missiles from the Black Sea, killing 40. But, overall, Russia kept its ships away from the Ukrainian coastline in fear of antiship missiles and drone attacks.
By the first year of the war, the Russian Black Sea Fleet had lost its flagship, a supply ship and a landing ship, USNI News reported.
March to June 2023
Russian intelligence ship Priazovye in 2006
- Russian Telegram channels report explosions in Sevastapol on March 18, The Kyiv Independent reported. Reports emerge of another Ukrainian USV attack on Sevastapol on March 22.
- Mikhail Razvozhaev, Sevastapol’s leader, claims surface drones attacked the city on April 24, according to The Kyiv Independent. Razvozhaev claims another drone attack on May 1, according to The Kyiv Independent.
- Sutton also reports that three Ukrainian drones attacked Russian intelligence ship Ivan Khurs on May 24.
Beyond the Ukrainian drone attacks that come about once per month, the Black Sea is relatively quiet. Ukraine continues to export from its three ports under the grain deal.
July 2023
Ukrainian grain silos destroyed in an attack. Photo via US State Dept.
Russia withdraws from the grain deal, claiming that it did not receive its end of the agreement. Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal leads to tension on the Black Sea and its bordering ports. Russia says it will treat commercial ships going to Ukraine as potentially carrying weapons. Moscow also begins a bombardment on Odesa.
August 2023
Olenegorskiy Gornyak in dry dock after attack
On Aug. 4, a Ukrainian drone attacks Ropucha-class landing vessel Olenegorskiy Gornyak, causing “serious damage,” The Kyiv Independent reported. The Ukrainian paper also reports that a drone carrying 450 kilograms of explosives collided with Olenegorskiy Gornyak.
The next day, a Ukrainian drone struck and damags Russian oil tanker SIG.
On Aug. 18, a Ukranian USV attacks Russian arms transport Sparta-IV, Sutton reports.
With the grain deal collapse, Ukraine sets up a humanitarian corridor for commercial ships to travel to and from Ukrainian ports. The corridor does see ships pass through it, although on a more limited scale than under the grain deal.
September 2023
Ukrainian strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea, on Sept. 22, 2023. Image via Telegram
- By September, Ukrainian strikes on Russian assets increase, while Russia continues its bombardment of Odesa.
- Between Sept. 13 and 14, Ukraine attacks Sevastapol, as well as Russian tanker Yaz and weapons transport Ursa Major, Sutton reports. Ukraine also attacks Bora-class missile corvette Samum, Sutton reports.
- USNI News previously reported. The Sept. 22 strike on Crimea kills 33 Russian officers, with Ukraine initially claiming that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet Viktor Sokolov died in the strike. However, Sokolov appeared in a Russian video the next day.
October 2023
Undated photo of Admiral Makarov. Russian Ministry of Defense Photo
By Oct. 12, Ukraine claims Russia has lost 20 ships.
In October, Russia allegedly added two new frigates, as well as a submarine, to its Black Sea Fleet.
- However, it moves the carrier strike group in the Med – the Gerald R. Ford Strike Group – to the eastern Mediterranean as part of the response to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
November 2023
Ukraine continues its maritime drone strikes on Russian targets, particularly in Crimea.
Russia, in turn, continues to say it has taken down Ukrainian drones, including six on Nov. 2.
- Ukrainian strikes hit the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch, likely damaging a newly built Russian ship, the U.K. Ministry of Defence announced on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
- Business Insider reports that French-supplied SCALP missiles may have been used in the attack.
- The damaged ship is possibly the cruise missile carrier Askold, according to The Kyiv Independent.
On Nov. 10, Ukraine claims it hit two more Russian landing craft with maritime drones, CNN reported.
What Comes Next?
A civilian vessel was struck by Russia’s air-to-surface Kh-31 missile this month. Ukrainian Military Photo
Moscow also continues its strikes on grain infrastructure and Ukrainian ports. On Nov. 8, a Russian Kh-31P air-to-surface missile strikes an Odesa port, hitting a Liberian-flagged commercial ship, according to the U.K. MoD. A harbor pilot is killed, while three crew members are injured.
Ukraine continues to flow foodstuffs through its humanitarian corridor. On Monday, the 100th ship passes through the corridor.
There are rumors that Russia is looking to build a naval base in the Abkhazia region of Georgia, with Politico Europe reporting that Abkhazia and Russia already signed an agreement for the base. Whether that comes to fruition is still up in the air, Savitz said.
“They want to be within the Black Sea further away or as far as possible away from possible Ukrainian attacks,” he said. “How well developed that will be, how quickly that might happen, a whole host of questions come up and constructing a new port facility or developing it such that it’s useful for the particular ships that you have, during a really intense period of conflict strikes me as hard.”
Savitz is keeping his eye on the Kerch Bridge as an area of interest for the future, he said. The bridge serves as a connection point for Russia and Crimea, but also as a point of pride for Putin, who sees is as making one Russia.
“And the fact that Ukraine has successfully targeted that and done so repeatedly, is a severe impairment to overall Russian power within Crimea and ability to project power from Crimea,” he said.
- Unmanned surface vehicle designs can allow them to sit lower in the water and/or carry heavier payloads since the vessels do not have to account for humans.
Ukrainian Drone Boat Appears To Have Been Captured By Russia
The intact capture of a Ukrainian MAGURA V5 drone boat could give Russians new insights, even if limited, and help with their own designs.
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