New article: Russia’s massive Black Sea problem is worse than it looks

www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2026/04/russias-massive-black-sea-problem-is-worse-than-it-looks/

April 09, 2026 - 09:36 UTC

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Drones with depth charges is on my 2026 bingo card.
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Small typo
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They once planned naval landing in Odessa. Guess that's of the table. ☠️
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Don't you love that for them?!
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I know Russia isn’t allowed to send military ships into the Black Sea through the Bosporus Strait. But is Russia also not allowed to move its Black Sea Fleet out through the strait to protect its ships?
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I believe (could well be wrong) that Turkey stopped all warship transits, with the exception of Russian warships returning to their home ports in the Black Sea.
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That's a very interesting perspective. Nice work.
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Submerging the boat at the dock seems likely to lead to allision & grounding & F-ups NOS. Must be fairly depressing to give commands like "all hands prepare to hide the boat".
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Iran should be treated as having the ability to attack shipping (US Navy included) in the Persian Gulf.
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Is there a chance that Ukraine will overrun Novorossiysk? That is, destroy/deplete the air defense with boat-drone launched fiber FPV drones together with FP2s, and then just put fifty to a hundred hits on everything it pleases them to hit, Pearl Harbor style?
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Amazing work by the Ukrainians before and since, but the Black Sea wasn't theirs after this point. The UK can't really complain about subs checking out UK waters. It was game on after this.
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Was that the HQ of the BSF?
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You're not supposed to complain about subs checking out your waters. What you do is make the fascists complain that their subs did not return home.
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Lovely stuff.
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“Now the protective seawalls of Novorossiysk are becoming a cage.” Things you love to hear
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Great article. Thanks!
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Using the old IRA adage…you have to get lucky everyday we only have to get lucky once.
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This
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Port in Tuapse is still working...
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I hear there's lots of safe parking spaces on the ground floor...
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“retreating through the Volga-Don Canal to the Caspian Sea may be irreversible” - can you elaborate?
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Canals use locks to change elevation. A lock is a ship-length section with big gates at each end with a pump to fill/empty the closed section.

Volga-Don canal has 13 pairs of lock gates. Damage to any 1 renders the canal inoperable but may also destroy it.

Lock gates are vulnerable to explosions.
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Nope
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I think I found Russia's Black Sea problem, it's their navigational references:
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I don’t think any navy likes to sit in port you are just extremely vulnerable there just sitting waiting for the Ukrainians to hit you
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