Extract from ABC News
Throughout Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, battles have mainly been fought on land.
But since this month's attack on the Crimean Bridge, and the grain export agreement going from deal to no deal, all eyes have been on the Black Sea.
An interesting power dynamic has been playing out in the maritime arena, which is usually dominated by the side with the biggest ships and navy.
Ukraine went into the conflict casting a "mere shadow" in the water against Russia's Black Sea fleet, said Alexey Muraviev, a leading analyst on the Russian military and associate professor at Curtin University.
"In terms of conventional naval warfare, the Ukrainian navy was no match for the Russians," he told the ABC.
"The Russians have the lot."
But through "asymmetric" warfare, with the use of unconventional weapons and tactics such as uncrewed surface vessels (USV), anti-ship missiles, and sea mines, Kyiv has managed to stage significant attacks and keep Russia's superior naval force at bay.
"Navies usually fight each other in big grey ships and now all of a sudden these little things are coming along and achieving quite significant effects," Richard Dunley, a senior lecturer at UNSW Canberra with expertise in naval and maritime history, said.
With the demise of the grain deal, both sides have declared the Black Sea a war zone.
Over the past week, Moscow has been flexing its naval muscles with live fire and water-skimming exercises, as well as anti-ship missile strikes at land targets in Odesa, but Kyiv remains confident.
Ukraine's Ministry of Defence says it has "the necessary means to repel Russian aggression at sea".
So, what exactly is Ukraine working with?
Big ships versus 'basic' missiles
Ukraine lost up to 75 per cent of its navy in Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.
And at the start of last year's invasion, Moscow set out to destroy the rest.
"The Russians were actually hunting down every single floating thing the Ukrainians had," Professor Muraviev said.
"In fact, the Russians have claimed they destroyed the last remaining Ukrainian warship."
In the hope of holding the Russians back at sea, in the lead up to the war Ukraine developed a home-made anti-ship missile, the R-360 Neptune.
Based on the Soviet Kh-35 subsonic anti-ship missile, the Neptune isn't considered to be radically different to what's been seen before, but it has played a significant role.
In April 2022, Ukraine sunk the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, with two of its Neptune missiles.
The strikes ripped through the 12,500-tonne guided-missile cruiser's hull in a devastating blow for Moscow.
Jennifer Parker, deputy director of defence at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), said the damage was surprising given the land-based anti-ship missiles are "pretty basic".
"It was really significant given the capability of the Moskva … Cruisers are difficult vessels to sink," she told the ABC.
"It showed that the Russian Black Sea fleet was not as capable as people had given it credit for."
Professor Muraviev said the sinking of the 500-crew Moskva was largely successful due to Western intelligence.
"The flagship was a massive blow to the Russians, but It didn't undermine the potential of the whole flagship fleet," he said.
"It was more a symbolic hit rather than anything else."
Russian authorities have refused to attribute the sinking of the Moskva to a Ukrainian attack.
The Moskva was involved in the famous Snake Island stand-off in the early days of the invasion.
Officers on board the flagship vessel ordered Ukrainian border guards on Ukraine's Snake Island to surrender, to which they answered, "Russian warship, go f**k yourself".
A radio exchange of the incident went viral and Ukraine even released a postal stamp commemorating the phrase.
The Ukrainian soldiers were taken prisoner but later exchanged for Russian captives.
Ukrainian forces recaptured the island in June last year.
NATO-supplied Harpoon missiles have also been effective, helping to offset Ukraine's lack of a navy.
Ukraine claimed the land-based missiles were used in an attack which sank Russia's Vasily Bekh support ship near Snake Island last June.
Although the use of anti-ship cruise missiles isn't new, Ms Parker says what is "surprising" is how effective they have been in Ukraine.
The threat of Harpoons continues to pose risks to Russia, deterring them from taking a more offensive role.
Evolution of 'suicide' sea drones
Ukraine's success in maritime attacks and denying Moscow the ability to dominate the sea has reignited a longstanding debate among naval experts about just how vulnerable ships are to missiles and USVs.
Ukraine first made waves with USVs – known as "kamikaze" or "suicide" sea drones – in October last year.
Russia accused Kyiv of attacking its warships with at least seven USVs in the port of Sevastopol, home to its Black Sea fleet.
Although no ships were sunk, the drones damaged two vessels, including the Moskva's replacement, the Admiral Makarov.
The next month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched a fundraising campaign to form the "world's first fleet of naval drones".
There has since been an increased use of the uncrewed vessels, which carry large explosive payloads and strike at the waterline of ships and infrastructure.
This month, Russia accused Ukraine of striking the Kerch Bridge – which links Russia with Crimea – with USVs in what Vladimir Putin called a "terrorist" attack, prompting an onslaught of retaliation.
Throughout the conflict, Russian warships and submarines have frequently fired Kalibr cruise missiles at Ukrainian targets.
Russia has reportedly been launching the missiles from the Black Sea during strikes on Odesa which this month have damaged port infrastructure.
The Kalibr has a range of up to 2,500 kilometres and a high-explosive warhead of up to 500 kilograms, drawing comparisons to the United States' Tomahawk cruise missile.
Different types of USVs have been used in conflicts around the world for several years, but not at this scale.
"The Ukrainians are achieving greater effects with this type of technology than we have seen up until this point," Professor Dunley said.
"They are managing to project power a lot further."
It is believed Ukraine may move towards using USVs for "swarm" attacks in the future, and it is currently experimenting with new designs.
Ukraine recently unveiled plans for the underwater Toloka TLK-150 drone, which has been described as a small robotic submarine.
Ms Parker said many countries are experimenting with uncrewed vessel capabilities, including Australia.
"As technology evolves, there is this real conversation about what the increase of uncrewed capabilities mean for naval warfare and what function they might provide as part of a naval fleet structure," she said.
Australia is currently in the process of converting the ex-HMAS Maitland patrol boat into a large USV, before commencing a series of sea trials. It has also acquired a number of Ocius BlueBottle USVs.
Sea mine threats
Sea mines are also among the threats that have reportedly led to Moscow shifting some of its fleet from the port of Sevastopol in Crimea back to Novorossiysk in southern Russia.
"You're seeing the use of those capabilities to pretty significant effect to the point where the Russian fleet is actually standing off in the back seat," Ms Parker said.
"They're not really interfering with Ukraine because of that threat."
The Black Sea is invested with hundreds of sea mines laid by both sides during the 16 months of conflict.
Ukraine has admitted to laying the mines for its "right to self-defence", but has not specified the type of mines employed.
Meanwhile, this week the US and UK intelligence communities said they had information that Russia had laid additional mines on the approaches to Ukrainian seaports to further interfere with grain exports.
There are several types of sea mines that can be placed on the seabed and be activated with either acoustics, pressure or contact.
Generally they are tethered so a country will keep track of where they are placed.
"The most dangerous type of mines are floating mines, where they're not put in a fixed position," Ms Parker said.
"They're just out in the water and float with the current ... You can't exactly locate where they are and that creates a threat to general shipping."
Professor Muraviev said although Ukraine had been successful in their coastal defence through mines and "assembling formidable forces on the shore", when it came to naval confrontations Russia still had the upper hand.
"We need to remember Ukraine doesn't have a navy anymore," he said, apart from a naval command and some smaller vessels.
"The consequences of Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal will demonstrate how far the Russians are prepared to go and how far the West are willing to go."
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