The spokesman for the Ukrainian Navy, Dmytro Pletenchuk, reported the information on the United News telethon.
"In fact, the situation for them may be even worse, because the naval base is the structure that ensures the activities of the fleet as a whole. Therefore, it may turn out to be not only mobile connection, it may also be supply, maintenance, and many other issues that are directly addressed by the naval base. So we will update the information again later, but as of now, we can say that yes, the operation was successful, the blow was serious and the damage is significant," he said.
Pletenchuk also noted that Russia has at least two bases in the Black Sea Fleet in the Azov-Black Sea region, answering the question of where Russia refuels its ships.
"This is the Novorossiysk naval base. It is unclear whether it will be able to cope with so many tasks, because, of course, it was not designed for so many ships. Nevertheless, there are still some logistical tools and, moreover, there are various ways to solve such problems. But they all quite seriously delay the process of preparing the ship to go to sea and, indeed, greatly complicate the work for military logistics," the spokesman said.
On the evening of March 23, Russia announced the alleged operation of air defense in the temporarily occupied Crimea. The Ukrainian Defense Forces hit large landing ships Yamal and Azov, a communications center, and several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Russia also reports damage to transportation infrastructure.