Ukraine’s Black Sea blitz has dealt a blow to Putin’s weakest spot – here’s what should happen next

Ukraine’s Black Sea blitz has dealt a blow to Putin’s weakest spot – here’s what should happen next

Ukraine’s biggest recent victories have been decimating Russia’s Black Sea Fleet but can the war at Sea turn the tide of the [Music] conflict this is World at War I’m the Suns defense editor Jerome starky and joining me today is Admiral the Lord West former first sealord and security and cyber Minister Lord West you’re no stranger to Conflict at Sea a fand’s war veteran you led the Royal Navy can you first of all just tell us you know how significant have Ukraine’s victories in the Black Sea been for its defense against Russia um I think they’ve been extremely significant and they’ve uh they’ve impacted on Putin because he has a soft spot for his Navy and he’s Furious that he thinks his nav doing so badly um and basically they’ve constrained the ability for the Russians to have freedom of action within the Black Sea uh and that that is very impressive bearing in mind their limited capabilities that they have they’ve uh they’ve been brilliant about uh using uh drone Maritime type drones and vessels we’ve actually given them a huge amount of advice on this um and we’ve been giving their Maritime a lot of advice for many years I can remember doing this well before the war out in Ukraine on a visit visiting their staff colleges where we had people instructing them on the naval side of things um the the Russians were a bit slap dashed they didn’t have a proper way of looking after their shipping they didn’t take the risk too seriously that’s why the mosa was sunk you know that was that was very poor that should not never have happened the loss of snake island if you remember earlier in the war how they captured how they lost that again the Russians have not been clever in how they’ve responded in thinking about this um and they’ve withdrawn and withdrawn the other thing is long-range missile attacks against ships when they’re alongside in Harbor the the the ukrainians have got very good at that and have CA severe damage to landing craft a submarine uh and so the the Russians have withdrawn across to novos isk really effectively um as I said have lost the ability to operate freely that has allowed the ukrainians to do things like clear Mine Fields and allow what is so important for them the export of grain down through the the Bosphorus um which of course brings income into Ukraine I mean it looks really spectacular we’ve seen uh the the footage of Storm Shadow cruise missiles hitting the Black Sea Fleet the headquarters of the blacki Fleet in Sebastapol we’ve seen the aftermath photographs as you mention of that kilo class submarine and Landing ships in the dry dock that were hit and of course perhaps most dramatic of all the the point of view cameras on board those mura 4 and the seab baby drones that Ukraine’s intelligence services using to you know sneak up to these warships and crash into their sides but is it going to make a difference in terms of the bigger picture of the conflict I mean despite all of that we still see Russ Ria advancing most recently in harv and before that you know have Diva and the donbass I mean Russia seems to be able to Lord West absorb huge levels of human casualties and yet keep grinding on is is the sea campaign going to make a difference I mean the answer is that the sea campaign is not a GameChanger it’s a it’s a in a sense it sounds awful to say in a sense it’s a sideshow because this is very much a land campaign and you know a land campaign in Europe um and so this this won’t make a change of that and there’s no doubt um you know Putin doesn’t care about the loss of his people um the latest estimates by our intelligence people are that 450,000 Russians have either been killed or injured there the military fighting in this war that is pretty horrifying numbers um and uh there’s no doubt initially the Russian army was as incompetent as their Navy and and you know was absolute shambles but the Russians learn and they have learned you can see they’ve done that and they’ve built this huge defensive Arc in the donbass which basically the Ukrainian uh offensive last year just blunted itself against without achieving anything really um and uh and they are now as you rightly say making VI because not least because China has suddenly well not suddenly is in the last year decided we’re going to come in and support them because we feel this is a tilt time in history where things can change and and they have been supporting Russia economically taking a huge amount of their exports so their economy in Russia is okay they’ve been putting a lot of Jewel use equipments across which can be used in missiles and uh and weaponry and that’s why the Russians are at the moment on this bit of a role and the ukrainians who have taken lots of casualties not as many as the Russians but they have um they had that Lacuna where they weren’t been given more advanced uh Western weapons which are now coming in but I fear that I I really cannot see how the ukrainians can defeat Russia um so it depends how you define a victory if you were advising ke if you advising president zinski or general CI uh their military commander what would you be saying to them what do they need to try and do to you know to reverse the the Russian advances well I I think getting the new weapon I mean basically that’s what I would do I would say right your priority now or our priority now is to is to blunt this Russian attack make it far too expensive for them knock them back where they’ve come in take advantage of where they’ve overextended themselves and and do exactly that but I don’t think we’re in a position to actually attack and change the status within the dbass I just don’t think I’m talking being as Ukrainian now we are able to do that now that is that makes life very very difficult because Putin at the moment thinks he’s on a role we need to stop him think he’s on a role but I think realistically this is not the UK government line I hen to add and and a number of people think differently I really do think you know there’s got to be some consideration how can we stop fighting going on how can we do this the trouble is you have to say what do each side see as a win and Ukraine at the moment says they want all their territory back I can’t believe that Putin would ever accept a a c not a c Sor an agreement peace Accord which gave back Crimea for example or or even the donbass so you know it is very difficult to get an agreement between but I don’t think the ukrainians have got the ability of defeating the the Russian army and as long as they’ getting all the weapons from us I don’t think the Russians have got the ability to take over the Ukraine so it is a bit of a stal MJ Lord West um last week on this show General Richard Baron’s described Russia as an energy company that’s fighting away we should think of it as an energy company I wonder uh I know we’ve discussed this before uh whether you think it’s in the the West gift or Ukraine’s allies gift to try and uh make Russia hurt economically because the sanctions are the sanctions working at the moment well I I mean I don’t think the sanctions are working as well as they should um and as part of the problem of course is that China are now willing to break it and and also I have to say India have been a bit naughty but one of the areas that in fact I’m going to raise it today in in the house is the whole issue of oil exports and they’re oil export orts from Russia have gone up and if you look around the world there are masses I mean thousands of tankers that are full of Russian oil exporting oil that should not be exported and indeed there are sanctions saying it shouldn’t be and I think we’ve got to we got to really lever down on those very strongly I also think we need to tighten up some of the secondary sanctions because those are the things that China is frightened of um China basically produces something like 45% of all the produced stuff in the world they make 45% of it and they use less than a tenth of it that imbalance you know they’ve got to sell what they’re doing and if the secondary uh sanctions are biting I mean and xinping knows this that’s why he’s not being all out support for Russia that’s why he’s not giving them weapons although he’s giving them dual use that’s a way of making sure he walks back a bit and if China walked back from Russia then I think they would find it very difficult I mean I have to say Putin and his agreements and cuddling xiin ping he looks like the little teddy bear about to eaten doesn’t he I mean you know the danger of supping with the Devil the Chinese love all of raw materials in in Siberia and and I think he is very much the uh the supplicant Putin um and I know a number of people in Russia don’t like what’s going on but so there is a risk there for him but I think that way with the sanctions we could really put pressure on Lord West thank you so risks for Russia but also sounds pretty bleak for Ukraine uh thank you for joining us on well World at War I’m Jerome starky the Suns defense editor and if you’re watching this on YouTube and you have any questions then please don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments below and we’ll try and answer some of them next week [Music]

Ukraine’s Black Sea blitz has dealt a blow to Putin’s weakest spot – here’s what should happen next.

Admiral Lord West of the British Navy spoke to The Sun’s Defence Editor Jerome Starkey on the World at War about Ukraine’s operations in the Black Sea.

– Contents of video –
00:00 – 00:14 – Introduction to World at War
00:14 – 02:20 – Could Ukraine’s blitz on the Black Sea fleet turn the tide?
02:20 – 03:12 – How Ukraine is making gains in its sea campaign
03:12 – 05:15 – Russia’s success on frontlines
05:15 – 07:08 – How Ukraine can push back
07:08 – 08:53 – China and Russia relationship
08:53 – 09:11 – Final comments
ENDS

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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/28089318/boatload-russian-troops-blown-water-kamikaze-drone/

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