National Interest: Russian Navy Suffers Crushing Defeat
- 28.11.2023, 14:33
New Tsushima.
The Russian Navy has suffered a crushing defeat in the war in Ukraine. Its image has been irreparably damaged by the destruction of the cruiser Moskva by Ukrainian land-based missiles. It is the largest warship lost in combat since the Second World War. This was reported by the US magazine The National Interest.
The publication compares the situation of the Russian Navy with the humiliating defeat of the Imperial Russian Navy in the Russo-Japanese War.
In May 1905, at the Battle of Tsushima, the Russian Navy lost its Second and Third Pacific Squadrons. Russia then fell from being the world's third largest naval power to the sixth.
And by the outbreak of the First World War, Russia could hardly be described as a naval power. The same may be true after the war in Ukraine, the publication notes.
Today, Russia's Black Sea flagship sits at the bottom of the Black Sea, while its flagship aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, is undergoing years of modernisation. And it is unlikely to be ready until at least the end of next year. That will only happen if Russia can train a crew to operate the warship. It has been out of service for so long that there are simply no sailors in the service with the experience to operate this carrier.
This spring it was also announced that the flagship of the Russian Northern Fleet, the Kirov-type nuclear-powered liner cruiser Pyotr Veliky, would be decommissioned because it was too expensive to modernise. Moreover, its sister ship, the Admiral Nakhimov, has been out of commission since 1999. And most naval experts question its capabilities, as it is older than many of the sailors who served on it.
Dozens of Russian warships have been sunk or damaged during the war in Ukraine. The headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has also been hit by a missile.
"Even if the war in Ukraine ended tomorrow, and Russia was able to hold the positions it holds, including Crimea, this war would be a failure for the Kremlin. More than 200,000 soldiers have died in it (possibly as many as 300,000, according to Kyiv). In addition, between 2,500 and 3,000 tanks and more than 150 aircraft have been destroyed," the publication writes.