A military expert explained who was threatened by Donbass. Although it made a lot of noise. For several hours, the operation of ships under the Crimean bridge was blocked, with several dozen accumulated. What could be dangerous for us on this Ukrainian command ship and why the Russian border guard said it posed a threat to navigation, said Captain 1st Reserve Reserve Vladimir Gundarov.
Photo: ru.wikipedia.org George Chernilevsky.
Late on Thursday evening, the Russian Border Guard Service announced that a Ukrainian warship was heading for the Strait of Kerch without any statement of intent and did not respond to requests from Russian border guards and requests for a change of course, it seemed to be in serious conflict. in the Black Sea. And then according to plan: noise in the world media, new sanctions, convictions and accusations of Russia's aggression … But this time it all ended in fiasco. The Ukrainian ship with the proud status of “pilot ship”, just swung at the scandal, silently left home.
“This is an old galosh that, in itself, poses no danger to us from a military point of view,” said Vladimir Gundarov. – But imagine the situation: in Moscow, there is a dense stream of cars on Tverskaya Street. And suddenly a manure cart is trying to cross this street. In this case, it is very dangerous because other normal vehicles can crash into it.
This “Donbass” created roughly the same situation in the Kerch Strait. Civilian merchant ships are constantly flowing through the Kerch Strait. Not only Russian and foreign flags, but also Ukrainian. They go across the Kerch Strait for unloading and loading into the same Ukrainian Mariupol. And in order to be queued for transit through the Kerch Strait, you must submit an application. And this “Donbass” didn't hit every shot, you see, he's so independent he'll go where he wants. And again, it is not clear whether he wanted to pass or not. Anyway, I was moving in that direction.
– The situation of 2018 would be repeated with two Ukrainian artillery boats and a tugboat. Donbass would be blocked in the same way. That means they would stand in his way, take him on board and tow him to our port. At the same time, even without firing, as was the case in 2018, when warning fire was launched on artillery boats from helicopters. The ship's crew would be detained, fined and then released. The ship itself will be returned later.
In fact, this “Donbass” has once been returned. This “old galuska” was originally built as a floating workshop. She burned several times, drowned, surrendered … In March 2014, during the Crimean Spring, her sailors surrendered. The Russian flag was hoisted on the ship. And then, a year later, Russian sailors in tow brought the ship back to the port of Odessa. Only later, in free Ukraine, this wreck began to be called a command ship.
– A command ship is a ship on which there is a march headquarters. For example, a squadron is sent to the sea, and such a ship may have a marching headquarters, communications equipment, or reconnaissance equipment. Although – not a fact. It's hard to say exactly what they had in this “Donbas”.
– Yes, he has no weapons at all. Not a single cannon. Maybe just officer submachine guns and pistols. When I was a cadet and an intern at Sevastopol, I lived on a command ship. It was a former Goebbels yacht, which was handed over to us as a repair after the war. We turned it into a Black Sea Fleet command ship. There was a beautiful Karelian birch deck, everything was decorated with mahogany and bronze, there was even a beautiful sauna. But there were no weapons on such a ship.
– It's hard to explain why it's done. Perhaps due to a lack of intelligence and imagination among Ukrainian elites. I think it's all pure provocation, which was specially prepared for the moment of telephone conversations between Zelenský and Biden. The Ukrainian president needed to show: so, they say, while you are “Mr. Biden”, you are trying to persuade me to move towards the Minsk agreements, at this moment Russia is once again showing its aggressive nature and attacking a defenseless ship
Their “Donbass” is no good. He cannot perform any military functions. So they probably tried to use this “galuska” for provocation. If she blocked the movement of normal ships and ships passing through the Kerch Strait, it is not yet known what could have happened there. She could stop in the middle of the strait, like the barge in the Suez Canal, and block the entire fairway. Well, who needs all this?
– It could, of course, but it would last. But the Ukrainian “Donbass” would certainly sink. So we were basically rescuing a Ukrainian ship from an unintentional sinking.