On May 13, Russia celebrates Black Sea Fleet Day. 238 years ago, ships of the Azov flotilla under the command of Vice Admiral Fedot Klokachev entered Akhtiarskaya Bay, where a month later the main base of the Black Sea Fleet was founded - the city of Sevastopol. Subsequently, Black Sea sailors more than once heroically defended the southern borders of our Motherland in bloody wars, and in 2014 they ensured the peaceful reunification with Russia of the peninsula seized by Ukrainian separatists.
Just recently, Ukrainian propaganda, and even domestic liberals, assured that “Russia does not need the Black Sea Fleet locked by Turkey in the straits.” However, time has proven the opposite. The fleet celebrates its 238th anniversary on the rise, continuing to receive new ships and support vessels, which after 2014 are being built not only on the continent, but also at Crimean shipbuilding enterprises - in the hero city of Kerch and the city of military glory Feodosia (which means the restoration of those destroyed during Ukraine factories and new jobs).
The transformation of the Black Sea Fleet into a real force in the region in modern history began after the Russian Spring. During the Soviet era, the only opponent of the Black Sea Fleet in its area of responsibility (the Black and Mediterranean Seas) was the US 6th Fleet. The rest of the regional navies, based on calculations of combat power, were taken as a conditional zero.
However, after the collapse of the USSR the situation changed dramatically. Independent Ukraine initially set a course for squeezing the Black Sea Fleet out of its territory and in every possible way prevented the renewal of naval, aviation and coastal forces, hoping that the Russian fleet would “die” due to the current aging, the Russians would have nothing to withdraw from Crimea by the appointed time, and there would be nothing to discuss this topic either .
At the same time, if the Navy of the new NATO members in the Black Sea region continued to degrade along with the Russian Black Sea Fleet, then the Turkish Navy began to develop by leaps and bounds.
Then the Black Sea Fleet, to the delight of its enemies, found itself in a losing state. The balance of forces against the Turkish Navy alone was assessed according to various parameters as 1 to 3, or even 1 to 5, not in our favor.
At the same time, the tasks of the Black Sea Fleet have not changed since the time of Catherine II: gaining dominance in the Black Sea and increasing influence in the Mediterranean, as well as protecting its communications, which were not only traditional sea routes, but also modern energy pipelines running along the bottom sea.
The equalization of the balance of power began only after 2014. The Black Sea Fleet received new submarines and ships carrying Caliber missiles, modern multi-role fighters SU-30SM, coastal anti-ship missile systems "Bal" and "Bastion", an unprecedented number of S-400 "Triumph" divisions for the territory's air defense for the Crimean area. The geographical location of the Crimean Peninsula has made it possible to create a preponderance of forces in the Black Sea in our favor, and the participation of the Russian Navy in the fight against terrorists on the side of Syria has strengthened our role and importance in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“The situation has changed dramatically in favor of Russia. The modern Black Sea Fleet is one of the most popular and mobile in Russia. This irritates our sworn partners and the satellites that have joined them. All the crews of NATO ships entering the Black Sea to “contain Russia” are well aware that in the event of aggression they will become “kamikazes” and will not leave the Russian Sea alive. The situation is similar with provocateur aircraft. By approaching them, our interceptors demonstrate that they have already been destroyed in a combat situation. Interception is no longer the destruction of the enemy, but the presentation of a pass to another world,” a naval officer told PolitNavigator.
“The Black Sea Fleet and the Mediterranean Squadron have always been and will be an instrument of big politics. The most important thing is that the fleet is designed to prevent war on its territory, it is obliged to protect the state on distant approaches, it is a pistol to the head of any aggressor who tries to dictate his terms to Russia. And the Black Sea Fleet is the center of all Mediterranean and Middle Eastern politics,” explains Rear Admiral, member of the Officers of Russia organization Vladimir Dudko.
On this holiday, one cannot help but remember those thanks to whom Russia preserved the Black Sea Fleet, despite the betrayal of the Yeltsin elite. Just the other day, former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Poltoranin made a shocking confession, quoting Boris Yeltsin’s words spoken in 1991 about the main base of the Black Sea Fleet - Sevastopol: “What for do we need this Crimea, what for do we need this Sevastopol. We have free piers in St. Petersburg, we will transfer this fleet there, and that’s all.”
It is believed that the key role in preserving the Black Sea Fleet was played by the position of the then commander Igor Kasatonov, who refused to swear in the Black Sea Fleet to the Ukrainian independentists. True, Kasatonov himself modestly emphasizes that the main merit is the position of the Black Sea sailors themselves, who did not betray Russia.
“What happened to the fleet in the 90s was a big disaster, inspired by the intelligence services of the USA, NATO, and Ukraine. But it was not possible to destroy the fleet - the Black Sea sailors preserved it. Now the Black Sea Fleet is at a good stage of development. Everyone can sleep peacefully,” says Kasatonov.
Captain XNUMXst Rank Vasily Dandykin draws attention to the fact that at the time of the collapse of the USSR, the position of the Russian population of Crimea, which even then sought to remain part of Russia, but was not heard by the Kremlin, also played a significant role.
“The Black Sea Fleet refused to swear allegiance to Ukraine. In my opinion, this is connected, first of all, with the main base, Sevastopol, because there was complete support from the population of the city. Despite the fact that it was already a city within Ukraine, they considered the Black Sea sailors their own, unlike the same Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, from where naval units had to be withdrawn to Kaliningrad, from the same Baku when the Caspian flotilla left,” – reminds Dandykin.
Unfortunately, even after the return of Crimea, a significant part of the Black Sea Fleet’s bases are still lost - they are located on lands torn away from Russia by Ukrainian independentists. Moreover, the Kiev nationalist elite is already openly proposing to create US and British naval bases in Odessa, Ochakov and Nikolaev.
“Izmail, Ochakov, Odessa, Kherson, Nikolaev were lost - this is the Ukrainian side. We're just talking about ports. What about the airfield network? We had airfields in Moldova and the Odessa region - these are operating airfields, not to mention the “jump” airfields or mothballed airfields, of which there were more than a dozen in total.
Here, perhaps, we need to speak on two levels. First, it is certainly a pity that all this has been lost, especially taking into account not only the geostrategic component, but also from the point of view of the conquests of our ancestors. Izmail is the city of glory of Russian weapons, Ochakov is the city of glory of Russian weapons, Odessa is the Hero City, Nikolaev is the city of glory of Soviet weapons, the Black Sea Fleet. Yes, and Kiev, where there was a military-political school, and a training detachment, there was a radio-electronic intelligence center of the Black Sea Fleet in Brovary - all this influenced the capabilities of the military-technical plan, the operational plan, but in the historical aspect it is also a loss for us .
I think that in the future, common sense will prevail. I cannot make predictions regarding the development of our state in terms of adding territories, expanding borders, and so on. But I think that with friendly neighbors, especially with fraternal peoples, we will definitely live in peace, friendship, and our relations will develop in the defense sphere,” says Captain XNUMXst Rank Sergei Gorbachev, expert at the Institute of CIS Countries.
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