{"id":36275,"date":"2018-12-31T17:06:23","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/12\/31\/why-russia-is-swallowing-the-black-sea-and-wont-stop-until-it-has-choked-out-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:58:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:58:48","slug":"why-russia-is-swallowing-the-black-sea-and-wont-stop-until-it-has-choked-out-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/12\/31\/why-russia-is-swallowing-the-black-sea-and-wont-stop-until-it-has-choked-out-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Russia is swallowing the Black Sea and won\u2019t stop until it has \u2018choked out Ukraine\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After Russia fired on two Ukrainian naval ships<\/a> in late November, seizing the vessels and crew, tensions between Russia and the West waxed and waned in a succession that has become all too common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea roughly five years ago, and sponsorship of separatists in eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donbass region<\/a>, brought similar condemnation from the U.S. and its NATO allies, as did the Russian annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia<\/a> in Georgia in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet those breakaway regions remain under Russian control, as the Kremlin proves that geographic boundaries can be redrawn without much more than stern words from the West. But absent harsher measures and greater push-back, the former commander of U.S. Army Europe<\/a> warns that the Russian Federation won\u2019t let up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think they won\u2019t stop until they completely own the Sea of Azov and have choked out Ukraine\u2019s very important seaport of Mariupol,” said retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who helmed U.S. European Command\u2019s Army component from late 2014 through 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his tenure, Hodges helped oversee the largest buildup of U.S. troops and base infrastructure since the Cold War, as Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a quest for client states to buffer against what he sees as NATO\u2019s own expansionism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe next phase will probably be land and sea operations that would eventually secure maybe even Mariupol but continue to take the Ukrainian coastline and connect Crimea back up to Russia along the Sea of Azov,” Hodges told Military Times. “It\u2019s not going to happen in the next six months, but this is the direction they\u2019re taking until they completely own the Black Sea and they\u2019ve isolated Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mariupol is an important seaport for Ukraine\u2019s export of steel. Russia recently finished constructing a large bridge linking Crimea to Russia proper over the Kerch Strait \u2014 a key waterway to both countries that bridges the Sea of Azov<\/a> and the Black Sea<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sea of Azov was where Ukrainian naval vessels were seized by Russian forces, and as far as he is concerned, a \u201cjunior lieutenant could see that this was coming,” Hodges said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was just the next step in their effort to dominate the Black Sea region so they can use it as their launching pad into Syria and the Mediterranean and the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Devin Feeney\/Staff)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine isn\u2019t a NATO ally. It is not guaranteed assistance from the alliance under Article 5 \u2014 collective defense. But the country had been flirting with NATO membership since 1994. Those plans ended with the 2010 election of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, but were rekindled by anti-government protests that drove him from power in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly afterward, Russia invaded using the hybrid warfare<\/a> model that has become a staple of their land grabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodges participated in the re-armament of Europe during his tenure with Army Europe. As the continent braced for renewed Russian aggression, the European Deterrence Initiative<\/a> began to funnel cash into refurbishing military installations and sponsoring allied training operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of that buildup included Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, known as MK, in southeastern Romania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo much energy was being put into the Baltic region,\u201d Hodges said, \u201cbut there was not something equivalent in the Black Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) transits the Black Sea, Aug. 22, 2018. Carney, forward-deployed to Rota, Spain, is on its fifth patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of regional allies and partners as well as U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa. (MC1 Ryan U. Kledzik\/Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For years, MK operated as a hub for U.S. soldiers transiting to and from Afghanistan. But when he was running Army Europe, Hodges began to set his sights on the Black Sea region and he saw MK as a strong point near one of the busiest ports on the Black Sea \u2014 Constanta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the armored brigade combat team, or ABCT, now rotates in and out of Europe, one of the battalions makes MK its home. Two companies from the ABCT are also placed further south, at Novo Selo Training Area in Bulgaria. This has been ongoing now for almost three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe decided MK should be a hub, a power projection platform out into the Black Sea for air and land forces,” Hodges said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a permanent base. It\u2019s a Romanian air base. But we have a very large footprint inside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MK also has the potential to grow. Maintenance is conducted there, ammunition can be stored there, and there are facilities to accommodate a larger mission command element. Part of a U.S. Army aviation battalion even flies out of MK, and the air base plays host to NATO\u2019s Black Sea air policing mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\t