Russia continues to 'hide' its ships, while aviation remains active – Pletenchuk about situation at sea

The situation in the Black and Azov Seas remains largely unchanged – Russian ships and submarines are staying at their base, while aviation continues active operations.

The spokesperson of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Dmytro Pletenchuk, stated this during a TV broadcast, Ukrinform's correspondent reports.

"The situation at sea remains unchanged. Russian enemy ships remain at their base in Novorossiysk, as do the submarines. Aviation, unfortunately, is active as usual, but there have been no sharp changes in the situation," Pletenchuk noted.

According to him, ship movements are mostly taking place within their deployment points in order to protect them from Ukrainian strikes or to disperse forces.

"Movements occur mainly within the deployment area… or at most they may go out into Tsemess Bay for the purpose of dispersal," he added.

The spokesperson also said that weather conditions are not currently critically affecting enemy actions, although during storms the use of ship-based missiles becomes more difficult. At the same time, the Russians are actively using reconnaissance drones.

"Weather conditions do not critically affect operations… The Russians use not only operational-tactical aviation, they also constantly deploy reconnaissance drones," Pletenchuk explained.

He also reported that submarines of the Russian fleet have not been used for a long time, likely due to technical limitations and the need to preserve their service life.

As Ukrinform previously reported, soldiers of the air defense missile and artillery division "Vidsich" of the 39th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade of the 30th Marine Corps destroyed an expensive Russian Merlin-VR reconnaissance drone.