Thread by @sumlenny

The (unconfirmed) news that a Russian warship had been hit and sunk near Odesa are actually not surprising. In contrary to Russian Army which is capable to win amid huge losses, Russian Navy is traditionally not capable even to that. Its history is a history of defeats (THREAD)

According to RU historical tradition, RU Navy was founded by Peter I, an admirer of the West and the founder of Petersburg. He invested huge money and manpower in fleet, but its most famous victory remains Gangut battle: 99 RU ships v 9 SWE (sic!) The fleet has rotten after Peter

Later 18th early 19th, RU fleet tried to compete on the Black Sea and Mediterranean. Admiral Ushakov was pretty effective against TURK fleet. Still, RU gains on the Black Sea were not to protected agains world powers. Amid Crimean war 1854, RU just sunk own fleet in Sevastopol.

Actually, Russian tradition to sink own warships in Sevastopol remained very vivid. Soviet Navy sunk own ships in Sevastopol in 1941, what makes Russian Sevastopol fleet the top one worldwide for the number of own ships destroyed.

But let us go back to 19th century. Russian warships were not modern, crews were ill-trained. As Russian-Japanese war 1905 started, Russians believed, Japanese are a "lower race", and sent its fleet from the Baltic to Japan. The convoy came to Japan in terrible condition.

Russian guns could not reach Japanese ships which had long-range guns. Japanese aiming optic was better. Russian fleet was erased. Russia lost 21 warship, 5000+ seamen KIA, 6000+ POW. Japanese lost 3 ships and 117 KIA. This defeat was one of the reasons for the Russian revolution

(Actually, one of the ships from this group which stayed in Petersburg, had turned to a hotspot of revolutionary ideas and was crucial for the revolution. But this is a remark).

Amid WWII, Soviet fleet remained mostly inactive. Black sea fleet was sunk by own crews. Baltic fleet was blocked in harbor and could not operate. Soviet submarines first left Baltic sea in Spring 1945, untrained and angry. 2 biggest wins of them are 2 German hospital ships.

Both vessels were sunk by Alexander Marinesko, who wrongly believed he attacks warships. Over 9000 refugees and wounded persons died. Marinesko was called a here all the years (and until now) because Soviet Navy did not have any effective commanders, in contrary to Army or AirF.

The history of modern Russian fleet is well-known. The Kursk submarine tragedy tops all the cases of incapability of Navy commanders in the modern history. 118 seamen died on Kursk. Many believe, the submarine was hit by a missile shot from "Pyotr Velyky" cruiser amid drills.

So - no, I am not surprised, if Russia has really lost another ship today. END

*a hero

PS regarding Marinesko: in Petersburg the "Russian Submarine Fleet Museum" is named after Marinesko. The guy, whose two only victories were two unprotected regugees/hospital vessels. Because, as said above, they have nobody who would be better: музеймаринеско.рф