Three more Ropuchas, RFS Korolev, RFS Minsk, and RFS Kaliningrad sailed from the Baltic and were shadowed on passage through the English Channel by NATO ships including HMS Dragon and HMS Tyne. Two elderly Ropucha-class assault ships, RFS Olenegorskiy Gornyak and RFS Georgiy Pobedonosets together with the modern RFS Pyotr Morgunov sailed from their Northern Fleet base. In mid-January, the first significant moves were made when Russian landing ships began journeys to the Mediterranean. The activity is designed to signal Russia’s ability to threaten Europe in various ways and to further concentrate amphibious forces in the Black Sea, potentially to strike Ukraine’s southern flank. This level of activity is unprecedented since the Cold War and involves deployments by units from the Northern, Baltic and Black Sea and Pacific Fleets. In the last week of January, the Russian Ministry of defence announced a surge of 140 warships and support vessels, 60 aircraft and a total of 10,000 personnel were participating in simultaneous naval exercises. Here we look at the naval dimension of the Russian military build-up and the implications for NATO navies. There is growing concern that another Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent.
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