(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Increased Russian naval activity in the Black Sea; more Russian stuff burning up [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2022-12-22

There has been an uptick in Russian naval activity in the Black Sea recently.

In the past few days there has been a significant change in the pattern however. Today the Black Sea near Sebastopol was busy with submarines and warships. Open sources, including analysis of Sentinel 2 satellite imagery from the European Space Agency, shows the increased activity. When the Sentinel 2 satellite passed over at 10:47 am local time there were a number of ships outside the harbor. These included a Kilo Class submarine which appeared to be returning to base.

But what that means remains decidedly unclear.

It is unclear why the Russian Navy has suddenly increased activity. Possibly it is political and reacting to the narrative that they have withdrawn to the safety of their bases. Possibly it is a sign of Russia’s military reaction to President Zelensky’s visit to Washington. It is possible that we will see more Kalibr missile strikes. number of scenarios where this may happen. Moldova recently warned that it saw an increased threat of an amphibious landing to attempt to create a land bridge to Transnistria. Alternatively Russia may be anticipating a Ukrainian advance south from Kherson towards Crimea. However there are awhere this may happen. Moldovathat it saw an increased threat of an amphibious landing to attempt to create a land bridge to Transnistria. Alternatively Russia may be anticipating a Ukrainian advance south from Kherson towards Crimea. One of the ships observed sailing north appears to be a repair ship. These axillaries can be important to support combat operations. So one leaving Sevastopol, heading towards the relative protection of a river in northern Crimea, may be a leading indicator of larger operations.

A landing to reach Transnistria sounds like a reach and doesn’t make a lot of military sense to me, but maybe Russia is thinking of a way to change the narrative and momentum of the war. Transnistria is basically a long strip of land only a few miles wide and sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine. There are maybe 1,000 Russian troops there. Moldova doesn’t have the resources to expel them. Russia could be thinking about bolstering its presence there and maybe use Transnistria to launch artillery or drone attacks on western Ukraine.

Or maybe they want to just seize all of Moldova, which wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight.

Or maybe Russia is thinking about a large operation somewhere else along the coast, maybe near Odesa. Or maybe they aren’t planning anything.

If they do try some kind of operation, they must be thinking they can defend against Ukraine’s anti-ship missiles.

****

Speaking of naval operations, how about Ukraine’s new Moskva Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile.

Wish I knew how to do this with video.

x That is amazing work — Spike79 (@Spike7962) December 23, 2022

OK, here’s a real ship, but it won’t see any action in the Black Sea. Russia’s only aircraft carrier, which was in Murmansk for extensive repairs because it’s a rust bucket, seems to have caught fire.

x A fire broke out on the only Russian aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov". Since 2018 Kuznitsov has been under repair in Murmansk which should continue until 2024.

This is not the first fire incident, in 2019, a fire broke out during which 2 people died and 14 were injured. pic.twitter.com/Zg4C6IFPvD — Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) December 22, 2022

x Supposedly a minor fire broke out on Kuznetsov in Murmansk. Just rumours at the moment, so take it for what its worth. The carrier is currently scheduled to be launched from her improvised drydock, an operation the yard says will take one month (!). https://t.co/mSy5Vah4PA — Alex Luck (@AlexLuck9) December 22, 2022

Yeah, that one-month thing ain’t happening. More like a year … or three.

Waiter, there’s shrapnel in my soup. It sucks when getting blown up for your birthday doesn’t involve balloons.

x A restaurant in Donetsk, where the former head of Roscosmos Rogozin celebrated his birthday yesterday, was fired upon by Ukrainian artillery. Rogozin was wounded in the. pic.twitter.com/wutO3jxErq — Paul Jawin (@PaulJawin) December 22, 2022

x According to Kommersant, the attack on Rogozin was made using French CAESAR howitzers 🇺🇦🇨🇵 pic.twitter.com/7h9xkoN1Od — Arnaud Castaignet (@arnocast) December 22, 2022

Morale is high and it’s time to dance!

x Glory to Ukrainian Defenders!



📹: poli4_0 pic.twitter.com/YcIRiPTRqt — Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) December 22, 2022

Christmas in Bakhmut for a little girl who rarely gets to see the sun.

x Ukrainian police officers from the "White Angels" squad came to congratulate a little girl in front-line Bakhmut



📹- CurrentTimeTv pic.twitter.com/iVzzJmSE8R — Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) December 22, 2022

That’s some good shootin’

x Just a good video. pic.twitter.com/wj1fu3WOnJ — Paul Jawin (@PaulJawin) December 21, 2022

Collaborators are gonna have to get some cannon fodder to start their cars for them.

x Locals report that in Kakhovka, a car belonging allegedly to Russian appointed head of Lyubymivka Andriy Shtepa, burned down.

Probably he also burned down along with his car, but so far this is not certain

(place where car burned is marked with a dot)https://t.co/6E5U5EcXwQ pic.twitter.com/EtCZvoYGzl — Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) December 22, 2022

Check out the guy on the bike riding by the car bombing as if it were a normal occurrence.

x Video of the Andreys car on fire

/3 pic.twitter.com/emuR1SZh9K — Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) December 22, 2022

Armor, aircraft … same thing.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/22/2143418/-Increased-Russian-naval-activity-in-the-Black-Sea-more-Russian-stuff-burning-up

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.