Maritime Dimensions of the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Russia’s navy has been extremely active over the past few weeks:

It is perhaps fortunate that Russia was not allowed to acquire Mistral-class amphibious assault ships from France. In 2010, Moscow struck a deal with Paris to purchase two of the 21,000-ton flat-decked assault ships and to build another two under license. The United State immediately brought pressure to bear on France, but Paris persisted with the construction of the vessels until 2015 when it finally canceled the deal following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The two ships were later completed and sold to Egypt. Compared to the Ropuchas Russia is transferring to the Med, the Mistrals would have offered a far more formidable aviation and command capabilities, putting Ukraine’s littoral at even greater risk.