The spokesman for the Naval Forces of Ukraine, Dmytro Pletenchuk, commented on the information regarding Russia's involvement of sailors in ground units during a broadcast of the United News telethon.
"As for the situation at sea, it remains stable. There is one submarine in the Black Sea, which is a carrier of cruise missiles, but it is carrying out tasks to secure the base points, meaning it is located in the eastern part of the Black Sea. Regarding your question about the Caspian Sea, technically, they can also use missile carriers from that body of water, but such practices have not been observed. In the Sea of Azov, Russian ships are basically absent, so we can say that the situation has remained quite stable for a long time," Pletenchuk said.
Commenting on the issue of Russian sailors being used in infantry units, the spokesman noted that this indicates a serious personnel shortage for the Russian forces.
"If this information is indeed confirmed regarding the transfer of naval personnel to ground units, it can only indicate a serious degradation and a significant personnel deficit, as specialists who belong to naval crews require a considerable amount of time for training. Therefore, if this is true, it can only suggest that they are indeed in quite a difficult situation regarding their available personnel," the spokesman emphasized.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Defense Forces have destroyed 28 ships and boats of the Russian fleet and one submarine.