In the line of fire: the fleet trying to stop Russia taking the Black Sea

When the air raid siren sounds, Captain Oleksandr’s patrol boat scrambles to defend Ukraine against the drone swarms that have come to dominate the war, writes

- Luke Harding in Odesa

Captain Oleksandr put his hand on the throttle and nudged it forward. His patrol boat roared into action and zipped through the waves. Behind him was the Ukrainian port of Odesa. In front - beyond a grey expanse of water, and 180km (112 miles) away, was occupied Crimea. “We're here to stop the Russians from taking the Black Sea,” Oleksandr said, as his boat - travelling at a nippy 30 knots - rolled up and down.

In 2014 Ukraine lost three-quarters of its modest naval assets when Vladimir Putin seized the Crimean peninsula. Then, in 2022, Russia sank most of what was left. Its own fleet, by contrast, seemed invincible. It included a mighty flagship carrier, the Moskva, two modern frigates, several smaller warships and multiple missile boats and landing vessels, as well as four submarines carrying deadly Kalibr missiles.

The Moskva entered into legend when it told the Ukrainian garrison on Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender, on day one of Putin's invasion. The radio operator responded: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself”.

The Russians stormed the island anyway and took the Ukrainian soldiers guarding it prisoner. Since then, though, Moscow has suffered a series of maritime setbacks.

First, Ukraine sank the Moskva using a Neptune cruise missile. Then it reclaimed Snake Island. After that, Kyiv’s homemade explosives carrying sea drones sent at least five other Russian boats to the bottom of the sea. In 2023 and 2024 Moscow’s Black Sea fleet relocated. Surviving ships left their base in the Crimean harbour of Sevastopol and sailed east, to the Russian port of Novorossiysk.