BLACK FLEET BLUES
July 31, 2022 -Durt Fibo

This morning in Sevastopol, a small explosive drone attacked the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, wounding at least 6 people. The headquarters was fully staffed, preparing celebrations for today’s ‘Navy Day’, which is a Russian national holiday. Ukraine has yet to acknowledge responsibility for the explosion, although Russian authorities unanimously attributed it to Ukraine –something they would otherwise be ashamed to concede. All Navy Day honors and festivities were immediately canceled in the Crimean peninsula.

At the same time, a reported 200 Russian marines of the 810th brigade mutinied, to the extent that they refused to leave their stations in Sevastopol to return to fighting in southern Ukraine. Without the mutineers, Russia will have to scramble to fill the front with capable marines and specialists with combat experience.

The chief purpose of the 810 brigade is to conduct maritime, and land, assault operations. According to CAST –Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies [Центр анализа стратегий и технологий], a leading Russian defense industry and arms trade think tank– the 810th, normally based in Sevastopol, have been involved in protecting the Russian airbase in Khmeimim, Syria, and since 2014 were involved in blockading Ukrainian military bases in Crimea to prevent them from putting up any resistance. The 810th brigade and the marine battalions of the Caspian Flotilla have been guarding the new Russian-Ukrainian border to the north of Crimea since 2014, before being deployed for 2022’s offensives against the Ukrainian mainland.