Ukraine's counteroffensive has struggled, but Zelenskyy says the blow it dealt in the Black Sea is one for the history books

• Zelenskyy praised Ukraine's wins in the Black Sea, noting they'd "be in history textbooks."
• Ukraine's counteroffensive is in its fifth month and hasn't gone exactly to plan.

Ukraine's counteroffensive hasn't gone quite as it planned, but President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the country's wins in the battle for the Black Sea, where Russia's fleet has taken a beating, are worth remembering.

Despite penetrating the Surovikin line in Zaporizhzhia, the offensive has not yielded the kind of breakthrough Ukraine's forces need, and the territorial gains against fortified Russian defenses have been minimal. Ukraine's attacks in and around occupied Crimea could be the biggest wins it gets before next spring. These achievements are not trivial though, the president said.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy addressed Ukraine on the state of affairs in the Black Sea, saying "it is very important that due to Ukrainian courage, we practically push the Russian fleet out of the eastern part of the Black Sea – Russia cannot use our sea to extend its aggression to other parts of the world, as it did with Syria."

He said the situation had "fundamentally changed" from Russia's use of the Black Sea and Crimea for its intervention in the Syrian civil war in 2015. "And when we add even more security to the Black Sea, Russia will lose any opportunity to dominate this area and spread its influence and destructiveness to other countries," the Ukrainian leader said.

Zelenskyy's most notable comment, however, was a criticism of the offensive critics and a reflection on Ukraine's actions in the Black Sea over the past few months.

"When full-scale aggression began, many around the world expected Ukraine to not withstand," he said. "Now, the incredible things our people, our soldiers, are doing are perceived as a given. Ukraine's success in the battle for the Black Sea is what will be in history textbooks, though it's not discussed as often now."

Ukraine's wins in the Black Sea — including but not limited to inflicting severe damage on a key Russian port, battering fleet headquarters, and using drone boats to terrorize much larger, more expensive targets — have been a noteworthy success story, adding to the David-versus-Goliath narrative that's persisted since Kyiv resisted a full-scale takeover in the early days of the war.

Zelenskyy's comments come on the heel of several recent Ukrainian hits on strategic Russian targets in and around Crimea.

In October 2022, Ukraine's military began leveraging its force of unmanned surface vehicles — drone boats packed with explosives — to attack Russian naval ships and civilian vessels in Sevastopol, long the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In a particularly successful hit, Ukraine used its drone boats to knock out the Ropucha-class landing ship Olenegorsky Gornyak in August 2023. The ship took significant damage in the attack. A month earlier, Ukraine used a drone boat to wreck the 12-mile Kerch Bridge connecting mainland Russia with Crimea. The attack harmed Russia's economic, symbolic, and military ties to Crimea.

Also in August, Ukrainian forces destroyed a valuable Russian S-400 air-defense system on the Crimean peninsula, marking a rare loss of one of Russia's considerably formidable weapons, and in September, they retook control of gas drilling platforms in the Black Sea during a daring raid. Another surprise attack, a Ukrainian special forces amphibious raid in August 2023, caught Russian troops in Crimea off guard and resulted in a somewhat symbolic victory, as Ukraine raised their flag on the peninsula lost to the Russians years earlier.

Perhaps the biggest and most high-profile attack in the Black Sea were the hits of the port of Sevastopol in September. Ukrainian forces bombarded Sevastopol with cruise missiles, damaging two important Russian ships and surrounding facilities. One expert told Insider it was a "major success for Ukraine" and "another blow to Russian seaborne logistics operations," effectively scattering the Black Sea Fleet and forcing them to rely on other, less centralized ports for repairs and support.

Ukraine's forces followed up that attack with a later strike on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters. Satellite images released in October showed the Russian fleet had relocated part of its force to positions away from Sevastopol.

Sevastopol has been the longstanding headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet, a key part of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. The shipyard helped Russia maintain its ships, which have been key assets supporting Russia's ability to bomb and strike Ukrainian territory since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Ukraine's attack on the port left an already severely weakened Russian ship repair sector with even fewer options for long-term repairs and maintenance, advancing, as experts told Insider, Ukraine's aim of making Russia's occupation of Crimea "untenable" for Moscow's forces.

As Ukraine looks back at the successes and challenges of its counteroffensive — which appears to have developed into a multi-front and multi-domain effort after fortified Russian defenses, landmines, and trenches prevented Kyiv's troops from retaking substantial amounts of territory — it may, like Zelenskyy said, come to see its Black Sea attacks as its biggest achievement.

Whether or not those victories in the Black Sea are sufficient to call the counteroffensive a success is debatable. "Ukraine's offensive has not met its own private or public goals and is highly unlikely to do so," The Economist's Defense Editor Shashank Joshi posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "The fact that Ukraine is putting impressive pressure on the Black Sea Fleet and inflicting heavy losses on troops and artillery does not change that conclusion." Some other observers have arrived at similar conclusions.

Regardless, Ukrainian forces still have options to bleed Russia's army as they head into winter and face renewed Russian attacks, such as the brutal fighting happening in Avdiivka.