russia withdraws submarines from Crimea due to Ukrainian missile threat – British intelligence

russia redeployed its Kilo-class submarines from the port of Sevastopol in temporarily occupied Crimea to Novorossiysk

Rubryka reports, referring to the Twitter of the UK's Ministry of Defense as of September 20.

According to British intelligence, the withdrawal of russian submarines from the coast of Crimea was due to the threat of missile strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"The command of Russia's Black Sea Fleet has almost certainly relocated its KILO-class submarines from their home port of Sevastopol in Crimea to Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai, southern Russia.

This is highly likely due to the recent change in the local security threat level in the face of increased Ukrainian long-range strike capability.

In the last two months, the fleet headquarters [in Sevastopol, ed.] and its main naval aviation airfield [in Saky] have been attacked," British intelligence said.

British intelligence noted that guaranteeing the basing of the russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea was probably one of russian president putin's motivations for annexing the peninsula in 2014.

"Base security has now been directly undermined by Russia's continued aggression against Ukraine," the British Ministry of Defense added.

According to the command of Ukraine's navy, as of September 14, russia kept six missile carriers with 40 Calibers in the Black Sea.

Earlier, British intelligence noted that the russian army had lost air superiority over Ukraine.

The invaders have lost at least four warplanes in the last ten days.

As Rubryka reported, according to Ukraine's General Staff, the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed 160 invaders yesterday, and their losses reached 54,810 people.

In six months of full-scale war against Ukraine, the russian army lost 12,142 pieces of equipment worth $16.56 billion, excluding missiles.

The most significant loss of the occupiers was the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the missile cruiser Moskva.

Read Rubryka's timeline of war: current news on Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression.