On June 5, Konstantin Mashovets, a military observer for the “Information Resistance” group, published an expert analysis on the deployment of a naval group on Azov by the Russian aggressor. The observer states that :at the first stage of the creation and deployment of the so-called “Azov Naval Region”, the Russian command will probably take advantage of the manning capabilities of the Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian Flotilla”.
He points out that the largest ships that can be transferred to the so far virtual “area” will most likely be class ships – “small anti-submarine ship”, “small missile ship” and “patrol ship” that is, regarding to other classification, “corvettes”, and that “large landing ships, frigates, and so on, of course, can operate in the Sea of Azov, but they are unlikely to be there on a permanent basis”.
The expert points out that “there are few convenient base points for them – they can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and all of them can be … in the “threatened zone””. At the same time, Mashovets adds, there are “sparsely” ships of the “corvette” class, of which the aggressor in the Black Sea Fleet has up to 20 units, and they are all “loaded with specific “work” within the framework of” Russian naval aggression in the Black Sea.
Speaking about the Russia’s Caspian Flotilla, the expert points out that “from the Caspian in the general dimension, the Russians can drag another 10 corvette-class ships through the Volga-Don Canal” to the Sea of Azov, but “now the situation in the Caspian is not so simple … to take it like that the entire combat core of the Caspian flotilla, spitting on the whole complexity of the “military-political situation” there, will be transferred to Azov”.
Therefore, the expert predicts that in addition to the three “Caspian” artillery boats of the “Shmel” (“Bumblebee”) project that the aggressor has in Temryuk, the Russian Federation can transfer to the Sea of Azov “a maximum of 3-4 ships of the corvette class” and that “Russians can lock 1-2 large landing ships in Sea of Azov on a permanent basis for “coastal” navigation for military purposes”.
