Ukraine's drone and missile attacks against Russia's Black Sea Fleet has forced Russia to relocate many of its naval assets from its naval base in occupied Crimea, according to satellite imagery captured by BlackSky, reports Business Insider.

Ukrainian attacks have also prompted Russian patrols and harbor defenses, including netting, floating booms, and moored barges.

"We're seeing patrols of ships around the front of the harbors. And so all of these things are indicating that there is a well-known threat to the Russians," an analyst with access to the imagery told Defense One.

Ukraine has sunk, destroyed, or damaged 24 Russian vessels in the Black Sea since Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion in February 2022, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

But Russia didn't start relocating ships until September 2023 when Ukraine carried out two separate attacks on Sevastopol using Western-made cruise missiles.

"We managed to unblock the grain corridor and suppress the activity of Russian missile launchers firing from the sea at the territory of Ukraine," Brig. Gen. Ivan Lukashevych previously told BI. "Forcing the enemy to flee from the Black Sea was the goal we sought," he added, "and it was achieved."

Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, has served as the key hub supporting Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sevastopol, the main base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet since the 19th century, has had a particular importance for naval operations since the start of the war.

BlackSky said there was an 18% drop in automated detections of military vessels in the port in the months after the Sevastopol strikes, a 23% increase in detections in Feodosia and a 22% increase in detections in Novorossiysk — just shy of 100 miles and just over 200 miles away from Sevastopol, respectively, according to Business Insider.

• Ukraine Hits Two Russian Warships in Strike on Crimea
• Russia and Ukraine Exchange Long-range Attacks as Their Front-line Forces Remain Bogged Down