Odessa, Ukraine--Military expert Sergiy Zgurets says that with the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine lost two-thirds of its navy.
All the most important ships by class and capability are now stuck in the occupied territory and that represents a big problem for Ukraine, he says.
"We need a huge amount of effort and expenditure to create a new fleet from scratch," Zgurets says. "There is nothing left of it".
The flagship Getman Sagaidachniy moored now in Odessa, was only saved from the occupation by pure chance.
When Russian special forces soldiers without insignia started seizing strategic locations around Crimea, the frigate was on its way back home from a training mission in the Gulf of Aden.
Nearby, the missile boat Pryluky is one of the few ships that managed to return to continental Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea.
But it is in such a sorry state that the crew jokes it was much cheaper for Russia just to give the boat back rather than dispose of it.
Russia and Ukraine did reach an agreement for the return of other vessels too, but this was suspended after a brutal conflict between pro-Russian rebels and government forces broke out in the east of the country.
AFP
