Russia can redeploy Buyan-M class warships from Baltic

Military expert, Defence Express editor-in-chief Oleh Katkov said this on Espreso TV channel.

"The Buyan-M class ship in Russia was designed with the specific task of being able to roll over and sail through inland waterways. The fact is that Russia, back in the days of the Soviet Union, had a wide network of canals and large rivers. Therefore, technically, the enemy does have the ability to move ships to the Black Sea. We are talking not only about deploying from the Caspian flotilla, as before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but also from the Baltic Sea," Katkov said.

He commented on the fire on the Serpukhov missile ship in the Baltic Sea.

"This is a small missile ship of the Buyan-M project, the smallest Kalibr missile carrier that Russia has. It is in the Black Sea, in the Baltic Fleet. So these are fairly well-known ships that directly cover the capabilities of launching Kalibr cruise missiles. Again, the question is how Russia was going to move them to the Black Sea in a situation where Turkey has blocked the Bosphorus so that no Russian ships can leave the Black Sea and the enemy cannot strengthen its Black Sea grouping. We are talking about deploying the Buyan-M from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. But as we can see, it is technically possible," he added.

• On April 7, a Serpukhov missile ship was disabled by fire on the territory of the Russian naval base in Baltiysk, Kaliningrad region.