Russian Black Sea Fleet Missing From Putin's Muted Navy Parade

Russia's Black Sea Fleet was largely missing from the annual Navy Day parade celebrating Moscow's strength on the seas, according to reports, as Ukraine whittles away at the Kremlin's vessels and facilities around the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Only two Black Sea Fleet vessels—a Syria-based corvette and the Admiral Grigorovich frigate—appeared in the broadcast, the BBC's Russian service reported on Sunday.

Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has used missiles and drones to menace the Black Sea Fleet partially based in Crimea. Russia annexed the peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine in 2014, and Ukraine has vowed to reclaim it.

Despite having no large warships, Kyiv has succeeded in forcing the Black Sea Fleet to largely shift away from the southern Crimean port city of Sevastopol, further east in the Black Sea.

Vice Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa, the head of Ukraine's navy, told Reuters earlier this month that Moscow was "losing" Sevastopol, adding, "Almost all the main combat-ready ships have been moved by the enemy from the main base of the Black Sea Fleet."

The British Defense Ministry said on Sunday that 26 Russian vessels were damaged or destroyed in the Black Sea between February 2022 and June 2024. Ukraine's navy has estimated that more than a third of the fleet has been taken out.

"In the past year we've seen Ukraine—a country which barely has a navy—bring the Russian Black Sea Fleet to heel through a combination of drones and long-range missiles," Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the U.K. chief of the defense staff, said earlier this month.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

None of the ships Ukraine's military has said it has damaged or destroyed in the past year appeared in the main naval parade in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, the BBC's Russian service reported.

Although Russia's navy has "suffered significantly in the Black Sea," its overall naval force remained strong, and "Russian naval activity worldwide is at a significant peak," General Christopher Cavoli, the head of the U.S.'s European Command, told U.S. lawmakers in April.

Russian state media said ahead of the event that the parade in the imperial capital would "showcase ships and supply vessels of all naval branches."

This year's main parade on the Neva River, which runs through St. Petersburg, involved 20 surface ships and gunboats, four sailing vessels and a submarine, reported Tass, a state-backed news agency. Across all locations, up to 200 vessels took part, the agency added.

In 2023, Tass reported, the parade included more than 40 combat ships, gunboats and submarines belonging to the four fleets. It also included 42 aircraft and helicopters and over 3,500 soldiers.

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