We’ll sink Russia’s Black Sea fleet, pledges Ukraine

Ukraine is preparing to destroy the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet with western weapons and take back Crimea, Kyiv’s deputy defence minister has said.

Volodymyr Havrylov claimed that the Ukrainian military was building up its own anti-ship missile capabilities and was waiting to receive longer-range weapons from other nations before launching an assault.

“They have to pay back for their aggression,” he said during a visit to Britain where he is observing Ukrainian troops in training.

Russian ships in the Black Sea regularly launch cruise missiles targeting Ukrainian infrastructure in the south. The ships’ positions mean that Ukraine is unable to export grain from ports such as Odesa owing to fears that their vessels will come under attack.

In an interview with The Times, Havrylov said: “We have a permanent threat from the Russian Black Sea fleet. Given the new technologies and capabilities we receive, we have to address this threat. We started with the operation on Snake Island. We are receiving anti-ship capabilities and sooner or later we will target the fleet. It is inevitable because we have to guarantee security to our people.

 “We are ready to target them all over the Black Sea if we have that capability.”

He said they also planned to take back Crimea and were in discussions with the West about whether they could use western weapons to target Russian forces there. Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 but is still widely recognised as part of Ukraine.

“Sooner or later we will have enough resources to target Russia in the Black Sea and Crimea. Crimea is Ukrainian territory, that’s why any target there is legitimate for us,” he said after speaking on a panel with the Henry Jackson Society think tank in central London.

He said it could be taken back via diplomatic or military means. “We have to think very carefully how to do it in the right way,” he said, adding: “Russia will have to leave Crimea if they wish to exist as a country.”

A military official in Odesa said earlier that Russia had already started moving a “significant number” of its Black Sea fleet from Sevastopol in Crimea to the safety of Novorossiysk, a port city in southern Russia.

Havrylov was speaking after a Ukrainian official suggested last week that Crimea could be a target for US-made Himars. The long-range artillery rocket system, which can destroy targets from 50 miles away, has been credited with destroying more than a dozen Russian ammunition depots miles from the front line.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and a close ally of Putin, warned that any attack on Crimea would ignite a “judgment day” response. He said the refusal of Kyiv and the West to recognise the Kremlin’s control of the region posed a “systemic threat”. “Judgment day will come very fast and hard. It will be very difficult to hide,” Medvedev said, according to Tass, the state-owned Russian news agency.

Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, has ordered the armed forces to prioritise destroying Himars.

British intelligence said that mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organisation, were being used to reinforce Russia’s frontline forces to mitigate mass casualties. The MoD said that the group was “lowering recruitment standards, hiring convicts and blacklisted individuals”.

Despite being bolstered by western weaponry, Ukraine’s military remains outgunned, and has struggled to halt Russian advances in the eastern region of Donbas. Some analysts believe that Ukraine will eventually be able to take back the territory Russia has gained since February if given enough high-tech weapons. However, to go further and take back land in Crimea would require an increase in western support.