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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / GFY, lots of Russian warships!

GFY, lots of Russian warships!

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Go fuck yourself, Russian warship

I’m sure Adam will have a more cogent take on this news, but here’s mine: WOW! Wall Street Journal gift link:

Russia Withdraws Black Sea Fleet Vessels From Crimea Base After Ukrainian Attacks
Pullout represents painful setback for the Kremlin, which seized Crimea in 2014

Russia has withdrawn the bulk of its Black Sea Fleet from its main base in occupied Crimea, a potent acknowledgment of how Ukrainian missile and drone strikes are challenging Moscow’s hold on the peninsula.

Russia has moved powerful vessels including three attack submarines and two frigates from Sevastopol to other ports in Russia and Crimea that offer better protection, according to Western officials and satellite images verified by naval experts. The Russian Defense Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The move represents a remarkable setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military seizure of Crimea in 2014 marked the opening shots in his attempt to take control of Ukraine. His full-scale invasion of last year has now boomeranged, forcing the removal of ships from a port that was first claimed by Russia in 1783 under Catherine the Great.

The withdrawal from Sevastopol follows a series of strikes by Ukraine in recent weeks that have severely damaged Russian vessels and the fleet’s headquarters.

Also today, President Biden told NBC News he plans to give a major speech on Ukraine and explain why it’s in our national interest to help the Ukrainians repel the invaders. An explanation is necessary because one of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    Gin & Tonic

    Selecting a Crimean Tatar as the new Minister of Defense had to have been a clue, to anyone who is receptive to clues.

  2. 2.

    hells littlest angel

    Also today, President Biden told NBC News he plans to give a major speech on Ukraine and explain why it’s in our national interest to help the Ukrainians repel the invaders.

     

    The guy really knows how to do his job.

  3. 3.

    japa21

    @Gin & Tonic: Unfortunately, probably 98% of Americans are not all that receptive, including some who are in positions of power where it is very important to be so.

  5. 5.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    is a cult whose leader admires  is on the payroll of Vladimir Putin.

    /fixed

  6. 6.

    bjacques

    I just finished Prof Snyder’s The Making Of Modern Ukraine—sorta binge-watched it. Engaging, harrowing towards the end, and there was so much more he wanted to say but time was short. Thanks all for the recommendation. Almost nobody else out there (except here) provides that kind of context.

     

    I hope the Black Sea Fleet finds they haven’t retreated far enough. Where’s that Admiral lately?

  8. 8.

    Geminid

    This move coincides with the opening of a shipping route from Ukrainian ports to the Bosporus strait, along the the Black Sea Coast. Two small freighters made it out 9 days ago and now three large bulk carriers  have made the journey.

    Russia has apparantly made no move to interfere. A plan to stop the ships might have been an agenda item at a meeting at the Black Sea Fleet headquarter in Sevastopol. That meeting was adjourned by Ukrainian-fired cruise missiles.

    This route, if it can be maintained, is better than the one enabled by the Black Sea Grain Initiative Russia ended in July. That was limited to grain only, and Russians could slow-walk inspections at Istanbul. Two of the latest ships carried grain but one carred iron ore, and all three could sail through the Turkish Straits with minimal or no inspections.

  9. 9.

    Geminid

    @Gin & Tonic: Did you notice that one of the grain ships that just passed Istanbul is named Eneida? It used to be the Bosphorus Prince, but last November it came under the management of Staff Centre Shipmanagement, based in Odesa. They evidently renamed the 185 meter-long bulk carrier after the famous Ukrainian poem.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    You just hate to see developments like this.  Yup, the Crimean War was apparently fought for nothing.

  13. 13.

    Anonymous at Work

    Those stamps are some of my favorites that I gave as gifts.

    Bigger than their HQ meeting being “involuntarily adjourned by Ukrainian missiles” (chef’s kiss, Geminid) was destruction of dry dock with a sub in it.  Can’t use military asset without being able to repair it

  17. 17.

    Geminid

    @Jay: I am a little surprised the Russians haven’t tried to hit one of the ships with a missil, maybe fired by a warplane from a distance. Maybe they’ll still try.

    I want to know more about who the ship owners are. These are not ordinary cargo runs and I suspect the owners have motivations beyond mere profit. Like I said above, the Eneida came under new, Odesa- based management last Fall. I think Staff Centre Shipmanagement says they have 8 ships under “complete technical management.”

  19. 19.

    kindness

    @bk: He isn’t on the payroll from Pution, he is being blackmailed by Putin.

    Why not both?  Trump sure acts like he’s taking Putin’s rubles.

  21. 21.

    Redshift

    @bk:

    He isn’t on the payroll of Putin; he is being blackmailed by Putin.

    Blaming it on either bribery or blackmail gives him way too much credit. (Similarly with the Putin caucus in Congress.) They’re just awful people and Putin is who they’d like to be.

  22. 22.

    Dangerman

    @kindness: Trump sure acts like he’s taking Putin’s rubles.

    More than Putin; he’s taking that sweet, crude money and he’s damn well admitted it. He said the Saudi’s would pay any price he wanted for MAL, right? That sounds kinda hinky to me.

  23. 23.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Dangerman:

    He said the Saudi’s would pay any price he wanted for MAL, right?

    Only if it comes with the bathroom he had decorated with our Nation’s secrets.

  24. 24.

    Jay

    @Geminid:

    The ships are only semi vulnerable to a missile strike in Ukrainian waters. With NATO running CAP patrols over the Black Sea, ships in motion in Ukrainian waters would have the ability to take some evasive actions. Warships are built much lighter than large freighters and most RuZZian ASW’s won’t take out a large freighter.

    An attack on International shipping in NATO waters would open up a new phase of the war, and would allow NATO to declare the Black Sea a no-fly zone.

    “Complete Technical Management” often means the ship’s are leased, sometimes for a time contract, sometimes for a trip contract. For the actual owners of the ships, well, they have no liability for the crew, no liability for the ship. What ever happens, they are insured.

    And then, there is a lot of money to be made shipping Ukrainian products, (ore, steel, grain) as at the loading dock the cargo is significantly underpriced to International rates, but get’s International rates upon offloading this can be as much as 50% more profit for the cargo owner.

  26. 26.

    lollipopguild

    @bk: Trump’s two sons have admitted that they had lots of Russian customers for dads buildings. Trumpy is being blackmailed but also being bought at the same time. I am  surprised he did not give Alaska back to putin as a “gift”.

  28. 28.

    Geminid

    @Jay: Ukraine’s parliament has set up a large indemnity fund intended to enable such shipments, so that probably helps.

    It is true that it would take a lot to disable a large freighter unless the engine room was hit, but I am still a little surprised Russia hasn’t tried. The first leg of the journey to Romania’s maritime border took the Aroyat 12 hours, I think. That must be the tensest part of the journey.

  29. 29.

    Steeplejack

    Per Joy Reid just now: Guess who’s moving into the Capitol office that Nancy Pelosi was ordered to vacate overnight? You guessed it—Kevin McCarthy. Thank you, bow-tied shitbird Patrick McHenry! Keep it classy.

  30. 30.

    Jay

    Logo
    Maksym Borodin
    @adnashmyash
    13h
    What do the “Potemkin villages” of new buildings in Mariupol hide? What is hidden behind the beautiful picture of Russian propagandists where “Mariupol residents have already received housing and are living better than before”?

    A Russian blogger came to Mariupol to show the revival of the city and add optimism to the situation, but SOMETHING WENT WRONG…

    Listen to how ordinary city residents live in the once prestigious Cheryomushki district after more than 1,5 years of Russian occupation:
    – out of 25 apartment buildings, only 2.5 houses remain after Russian attack;
    – no lighting at all in the night in a whole district;
    – the occupying power avoids as much as possible compensation payments to people for repairs (they refuse compensation if a person, for example, has a formal 8m2 in a barn outside the city);
    – they give compensation not for the size of the apartment, but for 1 person registered in it);
    – people were simply deceived by promising full renovations of apartments destroyed by Russian bombings immediately after the occupation of the city – and then the administration simply retracted their words;
    – residents to whom Russia today pays $100 pensions are offered to make repairs in their apartments themselves, which approximately costs about $10,000;
    – the sewerage collector in a district was destroyed and not restored;
    – the city water supply service does not work because workers are not paid and are on strike.

    In fact, all these people were liberated not from the “mystical Nazis,” but from all their property, which they had earned throughout their lives. But instead they were given Russian passports!

    This sentence is still actual always: “Russia will always screw you over, son!”

    https://nitter.net/adnashmyash/status/1709502264262468095#m

    there is video in both texts,

    Dmitri
    @wartranslated
    14h
    Russian blogger came to Mariupol and found the real meaning of the “Russian World”: people living in and around the new builds devastated the playgrounds. After the video gained traction, the area was “cleaned”. The blogger returned for a check but found from the locals that the basements of these new builds were full of water after the guttering burst, and authorities did not want to deal with it. The foul smell fills properties across the whole house. Watch till the end.

    Source: piped.video/@walkandtalk_

    https://nitter.net/wartranslated/status/1709488622972424406#m

  32. 32.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @bk: Why not both.

    After all his son did say in 2014, “we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”

  33. 33.

    HumboldtBlue

    Betty, we expect more posting from you now that the Rays have been unceremoniously dumped from the playoffs.

  34. 34.

    Anoniminous

    The Black Sea is classified as International Waters.  Meaning ….

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    but it means something.

  35. 35.

    Geminid

    @Anoniminous: The Treaty of Montreux signed in 1936(?) conditions access to these international waters.

    The Treaty addresses navy access as well as civilian shipping. It gives non-Black Sea navies the right to enter the waters but limits them by number and size of ships, and restricts their presence to 21 daysl at a time. The Black Sea nations of Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Turkiye are not so restricted, but right now Turkiye and Russia are the only two of these nations with sizeable fleets.

    A few days after Russia invaded  Ukraine last year, Turkiye exercised its Treaty rights to ban warships from transiting the Straits. This has mainly kept Russia from reinforcing its Black Sea fleet, but it also makes it harder for other Nato countries to project naval power into the Sea. Since the war began, US Navy ships have visited Istanbul but ventured no further.

    Ships up to a certain size can access the Black Sea by way of the Danube, Dnipro and Don Rivers. Canals make it possible to access the Caspian Sea and to sail all the way to the North Sea. A thousand years ago, Vikings traveled central European rivers to the Black Sea, with some hauling of their boats overland.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @HumboldtBlue: Thanks for the reminder! Now why don’t you give me a nice paper cut and a squeeze of lemon?

    Seriously though, the Rays ran outta gas a few weeks ago, so no surprise. I’ll always remember that magical start though! 😊

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