08-20-2022, 10:46 PM
(08-20-2022, 01:31 PM)Goose Wrote:(08-20-2022, 11:21 AM)Treefence Wrote: There would be some sort of poetic justice if Ukraine was able to liberate Crimea thanks to "These little drones" after Crimea was annexed thanks largely to "little green men." I know we've seen partisan activity in Kherson and Melitopol, it would be nice to see a large uptick in all temporary occupied areas.These little drones are indeed a weapon. What the Russian residents of Sevastopol also realize is that these little drones don't fly all that far. They are almost certainly being launched from inside Crimea and possibly from inside Sevastopol itself. One slight correction. While both Luhansk and Donetsk saw lots of activity by "little green men", Crimea was annexed via Russian regular forces that were present in large numbers because Russia rented the Sevastopol navy base from Ukraine. There was lots of resident Naval Infantry. It also helped that the population of Crimea was fairly heavily Russian.
There have been several references to the "destruction of Black Sea Fleet aviation" by the recent partisan activity. While this activity was important and very significant, several facts must be noted. First, the destroyed aircraft count is 13 planes, some of which were very obsolete SU-24s. Not exactly the "big deal" the headlines indicate.
This fact ties in with the above because Black Sea Fleet aviation exists at all only because there was a treaty obligation that no Russian planes would be stationed in Crimea except naval aviation. Naval Aviation was assumed to mean anti-submarine helicopters and possibly IL-38 ASW aircraft. Naturally, since the treaty didn't specify this, Russia transferred a ground attack squadron to the Black Sea Fleet and called it "Naval Aviation". Russian Naval Aviation hasn't fared well under Putin, although the western press insists on calling units that were transferred from the Fleet to the Air Force "Naval Aviation". Aside from the Black Sea Fleet for the reason mentioned above, there is no Russian Fleet Air. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Naval_Aviation.
Quote:As of 2012, the only fixed wing strike and fighter aircraft of Russian Naval Aviation are the Su-33 fighters and Su-25UTG attack aircraft of the 279th Regiment (forming the Admiral Kuznetsov's carrier air wing), plus the Su-24 bombers based in the Crimea. This sole bomber unit remained part of Naval Aviation as an exception to satisfy treaty requirements governing Russian forces deployments on Ukrainian territory (these must be part of the Black Sea Fleet).[22] Buying brand new multirole Sukhoi Su-30SM for the Black Sea Fleet to replace Su-24 was in the planning stages and it has been completed as of December 2016.[23] Naval aviation also retains the anti-submarine aircraft of the forces (the Tu-142 and the Il-38) and the helicopter arm.In fairness to the press, the Russian "re-re-re-re-organization" is such a mess it is unclear who actually reports where. What is clear is the Navy lost it's long-range strike bombers and all it's fighters except those in Crimea and the air wing (such as it is) of the Kuznetsov.
I believe there were little green men in Crimea, and lots of documentation to back that up. Yes, Russia had access to Sevastopol, but I think they wanted to portray the image of civil war, instead of occupation. Russian soldiers dressed in green uniforms without insignia, would pretend to be from Crimea. In this youtube series, you can see the Russian soldiers in green uniforms with no insignia. I highly recommend this youtube series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNKsLlK52ss&t=6s

