Russia's military power in the Black Sea and Crimea continues to grow and poses a danger to Ukraine.
The commander of the Ukrainian Navy, Igor Voronchenko, stated this at a conference in Odessa, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“According to our analysis, Russia has three main goals. The first is the legalization of territorial waters around Crimea. The second is domination and the creation of the most powerful military formation in Crimea. And the third is influence on the countries of the Black Sea region and an attempt to interfere in their internal affairs.
We see how the power of the Black Sea Fleet and the group that is stationed in Crimea is growing. First of all, these are carriers of the Caliber cruise missiles; at the moment, their total salvo is 85 units of the ship's composition, and, according to our data, by 2020 they plan to increase this potential to 168 missiles per salvo. Secondly, the creation of a strong group in the Azov Sea is 105 ships and boats that perform the task of protecting their border, which does not exist,” the admiral said.
However, he went on to say that Russia's military power is "inflated."
“But the devil is not as terrible as he is painted. Russia has always used dirty methods of blackmail and bluff. What we have? They report the successful launch of two Caliber missiles, but we know for sure that only one missile took off, and it did not hit the target. We saw the power of the Russian Navy when the Admiral Kuznetsov passed through the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and then the English Channel. And recently, literally 4 months ago, when they were dragging the new Buyan across the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles,” added the former tanker, who last year received the rank of admiral.