Russia's Black Sea Fleet Mocked in Scathing Cartoon

Russia's Black Sea Fleet has been mocked in a scathing cartoon following a report that 30 percent of it had been destroyed during President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

"Rasszists Continue to Pollute the Black Sea with their Military Debris," Serhiy Kolyada, a Kyiv-based cartoonist and book illustrator titled his latest cartoon for the Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post, published on Wednesday.

Kolyada used a term that was coined in Ukraine after Putin launched his full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. In the Ukrainian language, this sounds like "fascism," but has an "r" sound instead of an "f" at the beginning, and means, roughly, "Russian fascism," per American historian Timothy Snyder in an explainer piece for the New York Times.

It depicts an underwater scene that features the characters Ariel and King Triton from Disney's The Little Mermaid franchise, against the backdrop of destroyed Russian ships.

"Dad, why are the Razzschists littering our seabed?" asks Ariel in the cartoon, pointing to a Russian ship that has been split in half, and is descending toward the ocean floor, joining several other sunken vessels.

"Because on the Black Sea, they can't hold their own!" King Triton responds.

The Kyiv Post said in a caption that the cartoon depicts "that sinking feeling debilitating Russia's Black Sea fleet."

Newsweek has contacted Kolyada and Russia's defense ministry for comment by email.

Kyiv has targeted Russia's Black Sea Fleet throughout Putin's full-scale invasion of the country, which began in February 2022.

In April 2022, Ukraine attacked and sunk the fleet's flagship, Moskva, while in September 2023, a missile attack by Ukraine on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol reportedly killed several leading officers and destroyed a Russian submarine. At least 37 Russian sailors were reportedly killed when Kyiv destroyed the landing ship Novocherkassk in December.

By February 6, Kyiv's forces had "disabled" about a third of the Black Sea Fleet's warships, 24 ships and one submarine, the Ukrainian Armed Forces Center for Strategic Communications (StratCom) said.

Kyiv said it was behind two Russian Black Sea Fleet losses this month.

On February 14, Ukraine said its forces destroyed Russia's Ropucha-class landing ship Caesar Kunikov using naval drones. Ukraine's intelligence service released a video purportedly showing the moment its forces struck the vessel with MAGURA V5 sea drones off the annexed Crimean Peninsula, near the city of Alupka.

Ukraine said the Caesar Kunikov began to sink after sustaining damage on its left side. It was was the fifth large landing ship to have been struck by Ukraine during the war.

On February 1, Ukrainian naval drones destroyed Russia's missile-armed corvette Ivanovets near Crimea in a nighttime operation. Ukraine said its forces also carried out that attack using MAGURA V5 sea drones.

Russian Telegram channels have reported that Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, was removed from his position after the loss of the Caesar Kunikov. Newsweek couldn't independently verify the reports. Russia's defense ministry didn't respond to an emailed request for comment on the matter.

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