Intel: Russia's Baltic Fleet air defense capabilities significantly reduced after Ukraine attacks

Russia's Baltic Fleet has lost around a third of its medium-range air defense capabilities after Ukraine's recent long-range attacks, Estonian military intelligence said Friday.

Col. Ants Kiviselg, head of the Estonian Defence Forces Intelligence Center, said: "The past week in the full-scale military conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine continues to be characterized by Russian false claims of rapid progress in Ukraine. There has also been an increase in combat intensity and in Ukraine's long-range attacks deep into Russia using unmanned strike systems."

Ukraine's strikes have hit Russian intelligence and military facilities in the St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Taganrog and Krasnodar regions over the past week, the colonel said.

"The attacks have damaged Russian air defense systems, logistics warehouses and other military targets. In Estonia's immediate region, Ukrainian drones struck an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and the dry dock of the Kronstadt ship repair yard in the early morning of June 3," he said, during the weekly overview of events in Ukraine at the Ministry of Defense.

"From Ukraine's point of view, the Baltic Fleet's Steregushchiy-class corvette, which was in the dry dock, constitutes a significant success, as this class of ship is one of the Baltic Fleet's most capable air defense platforms. As a result of the attack, the Baltic Fleet has at present lost one-third of its medium-range air defense capability. This will certainly hamper the air defense capability of the Baltic Fleet and the Kronstadt area in the future," Kiviselg told the press conference.

Another important development has been Ukraine's increasingly systematic and effective campaign against Russian logistics, the colonel said.

"This is primarily in the direction of occupied Crimea in southern Ukraine and also in Russia's own rear areas. Ukrainian attacks are mainly directed at supply corridors that connect Russia with occupied Crimea along the Mariupol, Berdiansk, Melitopol and Dzhankoi route," Kiviselg said.

"As a result, fuel shortages have been reported on the Crimean Peninsula and sales restrictions have been imposed: around 20 liters on the basis of coupons. As a consequence, long fuel lines have formed and the price of fuel sold on the black market has risen significantly — converted into euros, the selling price of a liter of 95-octane gasoline there is €3.5–€4.7. This is an unbearably high price for the residents of Crimea," he said.

Kiviselg said that, as a countermeasure to the drone threat, Russia has begun painting its military equipment in r