Berlin, 05 July 2026
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a speech before naval officers and cadets in Odessa, praised the successes of the Ukrainian naval forces in the fight against Russia and attested to Russia the loss of supremacy in the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian navy had dealt heavy blows to the Russian Black Sea Fleet despite lacking its own warships and having limited resources, Zelensky said, according to the UNIAN agency. In his address in Odessa, he declared: "Russia has lost the Black Sea." Russia would find no rest in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov in the future, he added.
Background of the sea drone offensive
The background is a series of successful Ukrainian attacks on Russian ships and port facilities. These include specially developed sea drones – small, fast boats with explosive charges that, according to information from Kyiv, are deployed against Russian warships. These attacks forced the Russian navy, in the assessment of Ukrainian officials, to withdraw from the port of Sevastopol on Crimea and to retreat to the eastern part of the Black Sea.