British intelligence: Russia suspends cruise missile launches due to Ukrainian strikes in Crimea

The use of the city of Novorossiysk as an alternative site for resupply of cruise missiles is likely to affect the combat capability of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, British military intelligence notes in a new daily Twitter post.

Previously, Russia has traditionally loaded cruise missiles onto warships and replenished their stocks in Sevastopol in annexed Crimea.

However, this base is increasingly at risk of Ukrainian strikes with long-range weapons, so the Russian military was likely to look for a new site to store cruise missiles.

It is likely that after moving the cruise missiles to Novorossiysk, the Russian military is trying to solve logistical problems and is currently experiencing difficulties loading cruise missiles onto ships.

Back in mid-November, Kyiv claimed that the Russian military had suspended cruise missile launches and that this was probably due to "logistical problems" in Novorossiysk.

On October 5, it became known that Russia had withdrawn most of the Black Sea Fleet from its main base in annexed Crimea. Some of the ships were transferred to Novorossiysk, others to Feodosia.

The Russian command is likely to try to speed up the resolution of problems with the storage of cruise missiles in order to meet the expected winter campaign of shelling of the Ukrainian rear, British intelligence believes.

Background. As a reminder, the day before, Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said that Russia could have accumulated about 900 missiles for future attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities.