Since the beginning of the war, at least 12 ships and boats of the Black Sea Fleet have been sunk or badly damaged. This is more than 15% of the pre-war combat strength, which consisted of 74 ships and boats. Such data is provided by the "Project" using open sources. In 1990, the Black Sea Fleet consisted of 800 ships, of which 274 were combat. However, then it began to decline sharply – the number of ships fell until 2014.
By the beginning of the war with Ukraine, the fleet consisted of 275 ships and vessels, of which only 58 were combat. Thus, there were five times fewer warships compared to the Soviet period. The total ship composition decreased three times. Together with patrol boats, by February 2022, the Black Sea Fleet had 74 combat units.
As The Insider calculated earlier, by the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Russia had six diesel-electric submarines in the Black Sea zone, six large surface ships, including a missile cruiser, 36 other ships and auxiliary vessels.
In January 2022, under the pretext of exercises, additional forces from the Northern, Baltic and Pacific fleets arrived in the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Six landing ships replenished the Black Sea connection, the rest remained in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Ukrainian Navy as of February 2022 included one frigate (under repair), 12 patrol and patrol ships (including one corvette) and just over ten other ships, vessels and boats. Nevertheless, in a confrontation with a country that, in fact, has no naval forces as a branch of service, Russian sailors managed to lose the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the Project 1164 Moskva Guards missile cruiser.
On April 13, the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit Moscow with Neptune missiles. The next day, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the cruiser had sunk.