On October 22, reports from Reuters reveal that on October 20, Russian officials announced that the Black Sea Fleet has been compelled to withdraw many of its warships from the naval base in Sevastopol, Crimea due to attacks from Ukraine.
In an interview with the Moscow Komsomolets, Dmitry Rogozin, a senator in the Federation Council and former head of the Russian space agency, stated that because of the Ukrainian strikes, the Black Sea Fleet “has been forced to change its deployment.” The fleet has relocated from Sevastopol to Feodosia and Novorossiysk.
The report highlights Ukraine’s previous assertions that its strikes against Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea have compelled Russia to move its ships to Novorossiysk. On September 22, 2023, Ukrainian armed forces launched an attack on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. According to Al Jazeera’s report on October 2023, with an increase in Ukrainian missile and drone strikes targeting Crimea, satellite imagery has indicated that several missile corvettes, landing ships, and submarines of the Russian Black Sea Fleet have been relocated from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, over 300 kilometers to the east.
