Ukraine Has A Tiny Amphibious Force With A Very Dangerous Job

The Russian navy is assembling what is, for the Kremlin, a powerful amphibious force in the Black Sea—one that could land troops on the Ukrainian coast as part of a wider Russian attack on Ukraine.

Ukraine has its own, much smaller amphibious flotilla. If this force survives heavy bombardment, if Kiev doesn’t immediately capitulate and if the Ukrainians can organize a counterattack—three very big “ifs”—the Ukrainian flotilla might try to flank the attackers.

Under even the best of circumstances, this sea-to-land flanking operation—a so-called “counterlanding”—could be extremely risky for the outnumbered Ukrainian naval infantry.

The Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet, headquartered in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, operates three Ropucha-class and four Alligator-class landing ships. Each can haul around 300 soldiers plus armored vehicles.

Three Ropuchas from the Baltic Fleet last week began the long journey around Europe to join the Black Sea Fleet.

All 10 landing ships, working together, might be able to land most of the 810th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade based in Sevastopol. A single brigade might not be enough, all by itself, to capture a major target such as Ukraine’s strategic port Odessa.

But an amphibious landing combined with an overland assault might do the trick. A seaborne assault could open up a second front and divide the defenders’ attention.

That dynamic cuts both ways. In Soviet doctrine, amphibious forces would have conducted small-scale landings in order to support wider ground operations, especially in Scandinavia. “Soviet amphibious landings there also could be used to flank Western assault landings,” the CIA explained in a 1979 report.

The Soviet navy in the late 1970s had 24 Ropuchas and Alligators. Even this force was “seriously limited,” in the CIA’s estimation. The modern Ukrainian navy, however, has just one landing ship—the 52-year-old Yuri Olefirenko, a 240-foot Polnocny-class vessel that can haul 250 naval infantry or four tanks.

Three small landing craft support Yuri Olefirenko. Altogether, the Ukrainian amphibious flotilla could land just a couple infantry companies or a platoon of tanks. And that’s assuming every vessel is operational and the enemy fails to damage or sink any of them.

If the Russians widen their war in Ukraine and land a brigade near Odessa—itself a risky operation, considering the difficult terrain—but everything else goes Kiev’s way, a small but daring counterlanding could signal a wider counteroffensive.

Don’t count on it. Considering Russia’s enormous advantage at sea and in the air, it’s far more likely that the entire Ukrainian fleet will be at the bottom of the Black Sea an hour or two after the balloon goes up.

That doesn’t mean Ukraine’s 2,000 naval infantry, organized into two brigades and a reconnaissance battalion with T-64 and T-80 tanks and armored personnel carriers, won’t keep fighting.

Ukrainian naval infantry are roughly equivalent to U.S. Marines. They don’t always travel in ships—or fight anywhere near water.