Occupiers increasingly deploy ship grouping in the Black Sea

This was reported by Nataliya Humenyuk, head of the coordination press centre of the southern defence forces, during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine - Ukrinform.

We see that they are deploying their ship group more widely. On the contrary, they are not at ease in the bays. They are trying to occupy the most branched system of arrangement in the Black Sea water area, to get the most space for manoeuvres, because they understand that it will be impossible to manoeuvre in the clamped conditions of the bay and the defeat is more likely. Now the enemy ship grouping is deployed in the amount of 17 units: 16 - in the Black Sea, 1 - in the Azov Sea, - said Humenyuk.

She also added that among the ship grouping there is one missile carrier, which can have on board up to eight missiles of the Kalibr type.

This is the same "Cyclone", which they presented as a novelty, but it has not been officially tested, there are no conclusions about its combat capability. However, we can't ignore the fact that it is a missile carrier," Humenyuk said.

Gumenyuk also noted that the enemy continues to threaten civilian vessels, as evidenced by radio intercepts and attempts by the invaders to board merchant ships.

We observe very large activity of tactical aviation, in particular, in the direction from Crimea to Snake Island, including aggressive attacks such as dropping guided aerial bombs on sea transport routes. This is international navigation, around Zmeinoy there is a concentration of navigational transport routes, recommended routes, and accordingly all ships use these routes, they are laid out on maps. And the Russians, by dropping guided bombs, increase the danger of mines," Humenyuk said.