More Russian Warships Spotted Fleeing Crimea

Another Russian warship has been spotted fleeing annexed Crimea, according to Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Captain Dmytro Pletenchuk.

"Another small Russian ship is making its way out of our Crimea. Run, [Forrest], run!" Pletenchuk said in a post on his Facebook page on Wednesday. Newsweek couldn't independently verify the spokesperson's claims and has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Russia has been forced to relocate many of its warships away from Crimea to its Novorossiysk base in Russia's Krasnodar region as a result of ongoing Ukrainian attacks targeting its vessels, as Kyiv seeks reverse to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Russian Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported Wednesday that Russia's Bora-class Project 1239 hoverborne guided-missile corvette was spotted leaving the Black Sea peninsula alongside a Raptor-class patrol boat a day earlier.

Russia's Project 1239 missile hovercraft is designed to combat enemy surface combat ships and high-speed boats.

"The Russian Black Sea Fleet continues to leave annexed Sevastopol," the channel said, referring to the port city in Crimea. "Until now, both of these ships were permanently based in Sevastopol."

Russia has relocated some of its prized Black Sea Fleet vessels from its port in Crimea to avoid further losses following successful Ukrainian drone and cruise-missile strikes.

Satellite images from last October showed that Russia's fleet was fleeing from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia as Ukraine targeted Moscow's vessels. Ships were also heading to the Russian naval port in Feodosia further east on the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

More-recent satellite images from April, shared by open source intelligence OSINT researcher MT Anderson, appear to show that the Black Sea Fleet has largely abandoned its major Crimean naval bases.

Pletenchuk said in March that Kyiv's "ultimate goal is complete absence of military ships of the so-called Russian Federation in the Azov and Black Sea regions." A third of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has so far been disabled, he told Ukrainian outlet RBC on Monday.

Experts close to Ukraine's Defense Ministry previously told Newsweek that Kyiv is embarking on a strategy to demilitarize the Black Sea Fleet as part of steps toward eventually liberating the peninsula.

In April, British Defense Minister Grant Shapps said that Russia's Black Sea Fleet had been rendered "functionally inactive" after Ukrainian strikes on Sevastopol.

"Putin's continued illegal occupation of Ukraine is exacting a massive cost on Russia's Black Sea Fleet," Shapps said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

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