Families of senior officers in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet have left Crimea in recent weeks, the Ukrainian partisan group Atesh reported on April 20.
The group claimed that an internal directive was issued by Russian authorities in early April, mandating heightened security measures at military installations across Crimea.
This reportedly includes increased surveillance, covert patrols conducted by reservists in civilian clothing, and efforts to conceal military hardware. Additionally, all shore leave for Russian personnel stationed on the peninsula has reportedly been suspended.
"There is currently panic in the units of the Russian Black Sea Fleet," the group said in a post on Telegram.
The Kyiv Independent could not very the information.
Families of senior Black Sea Fleet officers fled Crimea. Panic in Sevastopol: civilian-clad BARS patrols, security boost, no days off. A few hits — and the fleet runs. #ATESH #RussianUkrainianWar #Crimea pic.twitter.com/S6c9rNBfL3
— ATESH_eng (@atesh_eng) April 19, 2025
Ukraine has repeatedly launched coordinated attacks on strategic Russian military targets in the occupied peninsula since the start of the full-scale war. In early April, Ukraine's military intelligence claimed to have struck two Russian military boats and an air defense system.
Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, suggested on April 13 that the potential delivery of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine could enable strikes on high-value Russian military targets in occupied Crimea — including the strategically vital Kerch Bridge that links the peninsula to mainland Russia.
Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and since then the peninsula has been used as a Russian military base.
The Atesh movement regularly conducts sabotage attacks in Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
On March 9, the group sabotaged a railway line linking parts of occupied Crimea with the front line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, disrupting Russian supply lines.
They reported doing the same in Russia's Smolensk Oblast on March 23.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
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