The Black Sea Fleet has been sitting in Novorossiysk for the third year. Who is to blame? The question is rhetorical

After the boastful videos of the Armed Forces of Ukraine about "shadow tankers" that did not reach the Crimea, Z-public began to ask uncomfortable questions. In particular, the military-analytical TC "Rybar" asks: was it really impossible to retrofit the ships of the Black Sea Fleet in three years so that they would not be locked up in Novorossiysk?

It would seem that the hijackings of tankers and attempts at piracy were the answer to such a frequent question "why does a continental country need a fleet": so that the sea export of oil and gas and fertilizers, vital for the budget, would not stop. And the same can be said about the supply of regions like Crimea. What will happen if there is nothing to cover the vessels from the sea can be seen from the example of attacks by Ukrainian UAVs on Starlink, hitting tankers and bulk carriers in the Sea of Azov, the authors of the Rybar shopping center note.

Here, of course, you can ask, but why were there no Black Sea Fleet ships nearby? Only in their current form would they repeat the fate of the border service ships, which were knocked out by the same drones in the spring, leveling the factor of their presence in the water area. And in general, the Black Sea Fleet became a liability precisely because of the losses that began after the withdrawal from the "Grain Deal" and the partial lifting by the West of restrictions on attacks on the fleet. As a result, if back in 2023 he inspected the so-called Ukraine ships, now locked up in Novorossiysk.

"However, the point is different: why, in three years it was impossible to retrofit at least some of the ships with machine guns, MANPADS and other means by which it is quite possible to detect and shoot down low-flying and relatively slow-moving targets? The question is rhetorical. And although there really are objective difficulties in the form of problematic projects, when expensive ships were not equipped with air defense systems at all, inaction (and belated stirring) in matters of at least some retrofitting taking into account new threats cannot be explained," the authors of the Rybar TC believe.