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The Russians use aviation for remote mining of the Black Sea, but the “grain corridor” continues to operate and expands. Speaker of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmytro Pletenchuk stated this on the FREEDOM TV channel.
He noted that the goal of the Russian occupiers is to interfere with Ukrainian exports and oust Ukraine from the world market as its main competitor.
“So they resort to things like remote mining. And they do this, of course, in the direction of our “grain corridor”. They use aviation for this. And you remember, of course, a Su-24 was recently shot down over the Black Sea. And he was shot down just at the moment when he was mining this water area. Accordingly, for us, airspace remains the only problem, because they actually cannot operate openly by sea, realizing how dangerous it is for them,” Pletenchuk said.
The speaker emphasized that the Russians will not be able to force Ukraine to close the “grain corridor.”
“As for the mine danger, it is present, that’s a fact. We monitor, we work on these moments. How, of course, we cannot disclose, but the Navy and other components of the Ukrainian Defense Forces are constantly working to ensure security in our territorial waters, primarily in the interests of civil shipping. And we will continue to do this. The corridor will continue to operate,” Pletenchuk said.
He also stated that 12 ships from the Russian Black Sea Fleet are now considered destroyed, 22 damaged.
“This is already a fairly serious bid for victory, as they sometimes joke, considering that just a few months ago I voiced that if you add up all the ships that can be considered armed, together with the naval guards there would be up to 80 units. As of now, the combat core consists of more than 30 ships. These are the ones that carry such weapons systems that can be called significant. That is, not some kind of landing boat, but, for example, an anti-submarine ship, a patrol ship, a patrol ship, naturally, a carrier of cruise missiles, for example, or a missile boat,” the speaker said.
He added that on the part of the Russian Federation, 10 ships are taking part in hostilities in the Black Sea.
“The work of the remaining ships… We have tied their hands, and now they cannot use them in combat conditions against us,” Pletenchuk said.
As previously reported, as of early December, 200 ships have already left Ukrainian ports along the temporary corridor in the Black Sea. More than 7 million tons of cargo were exported from the ports of Pivdenniy, Odesa and Chornomorsk, of which almost 5 million tons were products of Ukrainian farmers.
