Sevastopol Power Play Lays Down Putin’s ‘New World Order’

An explanatory note: My first guest blogger is the forthright ‘Odin’, who pens the leader commentary for WARSHIPS IFR magazine. This one is to be published in the forthcoming April edition of the mag, which is due out on 21 March. As it is highly topical and newsy I am sharing it with you here now, plus, following on from the Odin commentary are two elements of the magazine’s news coverage on the Ukraine and Crimea crises as I feel WARSHIPS IFR (of which I am Editor) has latched on to some angles that have received little attention so far. I will be crafting another blog with a Black Sea flavour soon.

‘A big struggle is taking place right now. Not a struggle over the Crimea, or Ukraine, or Russia, it’s a struggle for the world order…Right now, Putin stands only one step away from becoming the world leader, the key figure, the embodiment of liberty and independence from US hegemony.’
Professor Alexander Dugin, Moscow State University, writing in Komsomolskaya Pravda.

During the Ukrainian and Crimean crises of 2014 President Vladimir Putin of Russia has not used the same script as other world leaders. While the West’s foremost nations talked the talked, promising billions they could ill afford in financial aid to sustain the new government in the Ukraine, Putin’s troops walked the walk.

In Washington D.C. this all took place against proposals to cut the USA’s armed forces, of withdrawing completely from Afghanistan, while in Europe the British proceeded apace with their own disarmament. The French, also implementing defence cuts, were discovering they had a strike carrier that was only 65 per cent operational. Meanwhile both Russia and China continued to grow their armed forces, their navies in particular.

The waypoints to the Crimean situation were clearly marked. The Russians, who had been outraged when the West destroyed the Gaddafi regime in Libya in 2011, were jubilant last year when they successfully forestalled a similar fate for Assad and his cohorts in Syria. For Putin that was when the West blinked, shying away from strikes that could have seriously undermined Moscow’s foothold in the Levant (particularly its naval support facility at Tartus). The Russian leader saw this as a further sign of Western lack of resolve, particularly allied with NATO’s retreat from Afghanistan.

For him, armed forces are a major weapon of influence and he has no time for soft talk of ‘aid super powers’, except when supplying the tools of war to Moscow’s client states. Putin believes in playing hardball with military aid.

Following on from the endless stream of amphibious warfare vessels carrying weapons to the embattled Assad regime in Syria to shore it up, Putin in early 2014 decided to intervene in the Ukraine by sending ‘political advisors’ to bolster President Viktor Yanukovych. When ordering his paramilitaries to gun down protestors calling for their country to join the West did not work, Yanukovych fled to the Crimea, an autonomous region that is heavily populated with ethnic Russians. It is still home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) under a leasing arrangement that sees that force well entrenched in Sevastopol and at other bases across the peninsula.

Yanukovych was whisked away to Russia, from the port of Balaclava itself and soon naval infantry – insignia removed to gain advantage from confusion and acting in a very restrained and professional fashion – were on the move in a carefully orchestrated plan to steal the Crimea from the Ukraine.

Putin and Yanuk

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, second from left, and then President Viktor Yanukovych of the Ukraine (magnolia suit) at the Black Sea Fleet’s Navy Day in Sevastopol last summer. Photo: Russian Navy.

While the new government in the Ukraine conducted a war of words, Moscow’s forces continued to be deployed in classic Russian style, using moves from the old Cold War era playbook – Hungary 1956, Prague 1968 and Afghanistan 1979 – except with a menacing subtlety the Soviets, with their clunking fist of a Red Army, could never have emulated.

Paratroopers from various parts of Russia were soon flown in after Crimean air space was unilaterally closed to civilian traffic. The so-called invasion was – certainly in its first phase – actually taking place on territory that has a deep spiritual, as well as strategic, hold on Russia. Many of the troops, including the 810th Marine Infantry Brigade were on their home turf, as that unit has been in the Crimea for many decades. Its job is to protect Russian bases in the peninsula, which it duly did. It also sealed off Ukrainian forces in their bases. Russians believe the Crimea should really never have been separated from Russia by Nikita Khrushchev’s gesture that awarded it to the (then) Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine in 1954.

Ukrainian speaking in the north and west and Russian-speaking in the south and east, the Ukraine has a bloody past. Many Ukrainians saw the invading Nazis as liberators during WW2 and Stalin made sure they paid a heavy price for that. Ethnic German, Ukrainian and Tatar populations were removed so that Russians could be settled in Ukraine’s fertile eastern lands. Today’s Russian-speaking provinces (or oblasts) look to Moscow for their leadership. Ukrainian-speaking oblasts want to join Western Europe – a ready-made recipe for conflict. But beyond all this is the strategic question and that, above all, drives Russia’s behaviour. It still feels that in the world it has only two reliable and powerful friends: Its army and navy.

Access to ice-free ports has been a key strategic aim for Russia, whether under the Czars or the Soviets, and President Putin will not abandon that historic cause.

He is also determined to stop NATO’s advance into Eastern Europe and from the Russian point of view the Western defence alliance has been nibbling away (perhaps unwisely) at Russia’s buffer zone.

The Baltic States, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria are now NATO members and Putin fears the Ukrainians could soon join the alliance. A sign of their intent has been the ever-tighter partnership on operations between Kiev’s naval forces and those of the West. One swift achievement of Russia’s Crimean power play was the virtual neutralisation of the Ukraine’s naval forces.

Following the effective occupation of the Crimea by Russian forces, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew from preparatory talks for the 2014 G8 meeting due to be held in Moscow in June.

As this magazine went to press, the world was facing the most serious turn of events in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall – suddenly the post-Cold War era of peace and stability was over and a new fear of conflict was unleashed on the Continent. Anywhere with a substantial Russian ethnic minority could be open to Moscow’s military action in defence of its peoples.

The Baltic States have long feared such a move.  And with the Russians still occupying the large Kaliningrad naval base enclave (the former East Prussia, lodged between Poland and Lithuania) it would not be hard for Moscow to manufacture a Crimea-style crisis. It could send its tanks and troops striking down through Latvia and Lithuania – via the Russian ethnic zones – or even gain access via Belarus.

FGS ROTTWEIL pulling into Sevastopol

The NATO and German Navy mine warfare vessel FGS Rottweil sails into Sevastopol, autumn 2013. Photo: NATO/HQ MARCOM.

All of a sudden politicians in capital cities of the West were setting aside their maps of the Middle East and Asia-Pacific and gazing with trepidation at places much closer to home that NATO obliges them to defend properly. With armed forces cut to the bone in Europe, the Afghan withdrawal not yet completed and the USA in the middle of shifting its focus to Asia-Pacific, what could be done either in the Ukraine or the Baltic States?

Meanwhile, Russia has just announced the establishment of a ‘Northern Fleet – Joint Strategic Command’ to oversee control of not only its Arctic zones, but also ensure it gains, and retains, the massive mineral resources of the Arctic shelf itself. Newspaper commentaries published in Moscow have claimed that Putin is establishing a new world order.

He certainly seems to be embarking on that endeavour with cool and cunning calculation, determined to create a legacy of Russian power and influence the West and his nation’s so-called ‘near abroad’ will respect…and fear.

RUSSIAN MARINES BSF DAY

Russian marines based at Sevastopol display their patriotism during last summer’s Black Sea Fleet Navy Day. Photo: Russian Navy.

Ukrainian Navy flagship heads home and proves she did not defect to pro-Russia faction

Report and photographs by Special Correspondent Cem Devrim Yaylali, Istanbul

The flagship of the Ukrainian Navy, the Krivak Class frigate Hetman Sahaydachny, passed through the Turkish Straits and is today in the Black Sea. Despite conflicting reports (see our accompanying coverage) the Hetman Sahaydachny was flying the Ukrainian flag, indicating the ship is currently in the hands of pro-Kiev sailors rather than defecting to the pro-Russian autonomous region of Crimea.

U130

Hetman Sahaydachny steams through the waters of the Bosphorus, with Istanbul in the background. Photo: Cem Devrim Yaylali.

The Ukrainian frigate was returning from conducting anti piracy operations first with Combined Task Force-151 and later with Operation Atalanta since September 2013, working closely alongside NATO and EU nation navies.

The normal homeport of the ship is Sevastopol, which is currently under the control of Russian forces. It is possible the frigate is now heading for Odessa, the other major naval port of Ukraine (which has experienced unrest but is still in Kiev government hands).

A large Ukrainian flag was hoisted as Hetman Sahaydachny passed through the Bosphorus, a bold sign of the warship’s allegiance. The large patrol boat TCSG-90, from Turkish Coast Guard, escorted the Ukrainian vessel during her passage. A few minutes later the Turkish Navy frigate Yavuz passed through the Bosphorus and followed Hetman Sahaydachny towards the Black Sea. The Turkish warship was not officially shadowing the Ukrainian frigate, or escorting her, but the presence of Yavuz was not a coincidence either.

Stop Press: On the morning of March 5, the Ukrainian defence ministry released a statement that Hetman Sahaydachny had reached home waters. A defence ministry statement declared the frigate had ‘entered Ukrainian territorial waters…now she is near Odessa port.’ It added: ‘Military officials are currently solving the personnel accommodation and logistic support. The personnel are ready to accomplish the orders of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of Ukraine.’

U130

The Ukrainian frigate has clearly not defected to the pro-Russian faction as she still flies the Ukrainian ensign. Photo: Cem Devrim Yaylali.
U130
A tighter shot of Hetman Sahaydachny’s Ukrainian ensign as Hetman Sahaydachny passes through the Bosphorus. Photo: Cem Devrim Yaylali.
U130
Hetman Sahaydachny steams off into an uncertain future as she prepares to leave Turkish waters and enter the Black Sea. Photo: Cem Devrim Yaylali.
All photos are strictly © Cem Devrim Yaylali, 2013. For more by Cem Devrim Yaylali visit http://turkishnavy.net

Russian marines and paras seize Crimean peninsula

by Charles Strathdee

A Russian naval infantry brigade tasked with protecting the base at Sevastopol was deployed to spearhead a well-executed operation to seize control of the Crimean peninsula in the Ukraine. Meanwhile, airborne troops from Russia itself were flown in to airheads that had been secured earlier to reinforce the marines.

They completed the take-over within a few days. The Ukrainian Naval Force headquarters in Sevastopol was surrounded while its newly appointed Commander-in-Chief defected to the pro-Russian government of the autonomous Crimea.

A Russian Navy missile boat blockaded a Ukraine Coast Guard base at Balaclava. While it was reported several vessels were allowed to withdraw from the Crimea, the Ukrainian defence ministry said its units were staying where they were in Sevastopol harbour with hatches battened down.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian marines were bottled up in their barracks, literally in a face-off with Russian naval infantry. Calls for a Ukrainian marine battalion to surrender and leave its camp were declined but combat did not yet erupt.

At one naval base an attempt by pro-Russian forces to hijack a marine infantry armoured personnel carrier were thwarted by Ukrainian personnel forming a human chain around it. Even shots fired in the air did not move them and the would-be hijackers retreated according to the Ukrainian defence ministry

With a massive Russian military presence already in various bases in the Crimea, which remains home to the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) under a leaseback arrangement, it was relatively simple for the Kremlin’s take-over to go ahead.

One of the most intriguing twists, however, concerned the flagship of the Ukrainian fleet, the Krivak III Class frigate Hetman Sahaydachny, which was reportedly plunged into a dilemma with echoes of the famed Russian battleship Potemkin.

The Hetman Sahaydachny was concluding a deployment with NATO and EU navies east of Suez, combating pirates, when mass protests in Kiev led to the fall of the pro-Russian regime led by President Viktor Yanukovych.

Russian sources soon claimed the ship had declared continuing allegiance to Yanukovych and would return to Sevastopol to come under the command of the Crimean government. The same sources, claiming the Russian naval ensign was now flown by the frigate, also alleged the Ukrainian government had asked Turkey to stop the frigate coming through the Straits to enter the Black Sea. Ukrainian government sources claimed she had not defected and still flew the Ukrainian ensign.

They released a photo of the warship berthed alongside at a NATO base in Crete to prove their point. The new head of the Ukrainian Navy, Rear Admiral Andriy Tarasov said: “Ukrainian servicemen serve for the Ukrainian people and sail under the Ukrainian flag.” As this magazine went to press it was still uncertain what the frigate’s ultimate fate would be: Would she head for a Ukrainian port such as Odessa or the Crimea? See accompanying news update.

In 1905 the Potemkin’s crew mutinied against cruel officers, killing several, while cruising off the Ukrainian coast. The pre-dreadnought ended up in a Romanian port after wandering the Black Sea pursued by Imperial Russian Navy vessels.  On March 4/5 this year the Ukrainian frigate passed through the Bosphorus, allegedly heading for Odessa.

Meanwhile it was claimed by the Ukrainians that an attempt by the Russians to board and seize their command ship Slavutych, trapped in a Crimean port, was repelled.

HETMAN AT SOUDA Bay

The Ukrainian Navy flagship Hetman Sahaydachny at the NATO naval facility in Souda Bay, Crete following the Russian seizure of Crimea Photo: Ukrainian defence ministry.

SLAVUTYCH 

The Ukrainian Navy command vessel Slavutych, whose crew reportedly repelled a Russian attempt to board and size her. Photo: Ukrainian defence ministry.

HETMAN

Sailors of the Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaydachny show their loyalty to the Kiev government by making the national symbol of the Ukraine on the flight-deck of their warship. Photo: Ukrainian defence ministry.

For more details on WARSHIPS IFR magazine, visit the publication’s web site: www.warshipsifr.com The April 2014 edition hits the streets from March 21.

Archive by month

Archive by year