"Russia's Ministry of Defence said the large landing ship Novocherkassk was struck by Ukrainian aircraft carrying guided missiles....After a missile strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol last September, satellite images showed that the Russian navy had moved much of its Black Sea fleet away from Crimea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk," which is southeast of Crimea.
None of this implies that Russia's fleet has been entirely disabled. They are still firing missiles. But Ukraine has done them serious damage. (Some of that was by more conventional weapons though.)
>US DoD confirmed that Ukraine struck the Moskva and sank it
This is kind of like saying that the Japanese dominated the Pacific in WW2 because they sunk the Lexington.
>At the end of 2023, UK's defense minister said Russia had lost 20% of its Black Sea fleet in the prior four months.
The UK have been coming up with ever more creative ways to declare that Russia is losing this war, each straining more credulity than the last.
They were the source of the rather famous "Ukraine faces off against poorly trained demoralized soldiers armed just with shovels" intelligence briefing from 2022.
In the case of the black sea fleet they made a huge a deal out of the destruction of fleet HQ while neglecting to mention that it was a poorly defended historic site rather than an operational hq and nerve center.
Which is to say, if they announce 20% you can probably safely assume the internal estimate is 10% with an upper bound of 20%.
>None of this implies that Russia's fleet has been entirely disabled.
Nothing of what I said implied that Ukraine didnt sink any ships in this war or that Russia hasnt sustained black eyes.
The idea that Ukraine has done such serious damage that it "denied" the black sea fleet the ability to operate is errs more on the side of shovel-flavored cope rather than trenchant analysis, however.
Even 10% in four months is pretty stout. But I suspect the UK has fairly precise bounds on their "estimates" of the size of the Russian fleet, and their losses.
In any case, maybe you could post sources?
From a quick google, Russia lost at least several other large ships, include troop ships and missile launchers. I don't know whether Ukraine destroyed them as they claimed, but if not, then Russia has rather serious maintenance issues.
From afar, all this might seem like minor issue, but over the past few decades the US has gone through several wars without losing any ships to enemy action, and I think the national freak-out if that changed would be pretty dramatic.
> The idea that Ukraine has done such serious damage that it "denied" the black sea fleet the ability to operate is errs more on the side of shovel-flavored cope rather than trenchant analysis, however.
You are ignoring the fact, that Russian Black Sea Fleet is not based in Sevastopol anymore, but in Novorossiysk, which is on eastern part of Black Sea. They have essentially vacated half of the Black Sea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Moskva
"Russia's Ministry of Defence said the large landing ship Novocherkassk was struck by Ukrainian aircraft carrying guided missiles....After a missile strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol last September, satellite images showed that the Russian navy had moved much of its Black Sea fleet away from Crimea to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk," which is southeast of Crimea.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67821515
At the end of 2023, UK's defense minister said Russia had lost 20% of its Black Sea fleet in the prior four months.
https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-lost-fifth-black-sea-...
None of this implies that Russia's fleet has been entirely disabled. They are still firing missiles. But Ukraine has done them serious damage. (Some of that was by more conventional weapons though.)