“Ukraine’s main success over the past six months is its naval victory in the Black Sea,” Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder: “Ukraine’s main success over the past six months is its naval victory in the Black Sea. To everyone’s surprise, Ukrainians managed to contain the Black Sea Fleet and open a corridor for commercial grain trade. Some reporters covered this, but in general it passed people’s attention, while there is something significant in what actually happened, namely this naval victory.”

Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University.

Source: The Telegraph, http://surl.li/nwwot

Stephen Blank: “The facts about Ukraine’s naval victories refute the claim that Ukrainians are unable to win the war. The facts contradict these unfounded claims. So far, Ukraine’s attacks on the Russian Black Sea Fleet have brought tactical victories one after another. Strikes and successful raids by Ukraine have repeatedly hit Russian naval targets and the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, underscoring the longstanding failure of Moscow’s naval strategy and air defense. Especially in the absence of sufficient air power, these victories reveal Ukraine’s strategic intelligence in coordinating military operations with the ultimate goal of throwing Russia out of Crimea. Therefore, these operations deserve further large-scale Western support.”

Stephen Blank, Ph.D. is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is a former professor of Russian national security studies and national security affairs at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College and a former MacArthur fellow at the U.S. Army War College. Blank is an independent consultant focused on the geopolitics and geostrategy of the former Soviet Union, Russia and Eurasia.

Source: The Hill, http://surl.li/nxujv

Tom Sharpe: “Ukraine has won a massive naval victory without having a navy. Russia’s control over Sevastopol is weakening, with huge implications for the Black Sea Fleet. And while much attention is being paid to the success (or lack thereof) of the Ukrainian counteroffensive on land, events in the Black Sea periodically remind us of its strategic importance in this ongoing conflict. Ukrainian attacks on the Black Sea Fleet have a huge moral impact on the Russians: the Russian navy isn’t exactly known for its high morale and fighting spirit even at the best of times. It’s hard to imagine it could get much worse, now.”

Tom Sharpe — is a former Royal Navy frigate captain, with operational experience in contact with the Russian navy.

Source: The Telegraph, http://surl.li/nxuhr