| While the Russian invasion and the Ukrainian counteroffensive look stuck onshore, things are on the move at sea, with Ukraine scoring important victories, even though it has almost no military fleet to speak of. What makes war in the twenty-first century remarkable, at least at first sight, is the use of drones – unmanned aerial or sea vehicles – capable of inflicting major harm, at little expense, to the behemoths of the 20th century: military ports, ships, airports and their fleets of military aircraft. Ukraine is increasingly targeting Crimea, its Black Sea peninsula illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. To avoid escalation, the US is putting pressure on Kyiv not to attack Russia proper – but Crimea is not Russian, so the Ukrainian army has no qualms about carrying out its attacks there. The main target appears to be the port of Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and Russia’s major base for its Black Sea fleet. Sevastopol was a Russian navy base even after Ukraine became independent, and its lease was negotiated until 2042, with the option of further extensions. But Russia ‘made it simple’ in 2014 by annexing Crimea. The most recent Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol is described as the biggest since the Russian invasion started in February 2022. A large landing vessel and submarine were hit in the strike, carried out by missiles and sea drones – unmanned speedboats. In parallel, the Kerch bridge linking Russia proper and Crimea, inaugurated by Vladimir Putin in 2018, has been under constant Ukrainian attacks after it suffered major damage on 8 October 2022 when a truck stuffed with explosives exploded, bringing down a section and rendering two motorway lanes unusable. Russia later repaired the damage. | 
The Roundup
