Odessa, Ukraine--In terms of personnel, the story is just as bleak.
Today the Ukrainian navy consists of only 6,000 servicemen, down dramatically from the 14,000 it boasted in 2013.
Of the 8,000 sailors who served in Crimea only 2,000 chose Ukraine. Most of the others opted to join the Russian side.
The defection of so many of their comrades grates painfully for those who decided to stay in Ukraine's navy.
"There were many traitors among us," says senior lieutenant Petro Bondar, 26.
"When I studied, there were professors who used to talk about the advantages of serving in the Russian navy."
Bondar recalls with anger the names of the ships that he and his colleagues were forced to abandon to the Russians -- the corvette Ternopil and minesweepers Cherkasy and Chernigiv.
"Everyone expected them to be returned to Odessa. But it turned out much worse than expected," he lamented.
With their forces ravaged, Ukraine's top brass are desperately seeking for a light at the end of the tunnel.
Admiral Igor Kabanenko, Ukraine's former deputy defence minister, says that most of the warships Kiev lost were Soviet-era relics and would anyway soon have become obsolete.
"What we need is a new strategy for the Ukrainian navy, a new vision of what it should be in the future," he told AFP.
"We have to make choices: either we create a new and effective naval force or we stand aside and watch as someone else takes away what is left".
AFP
