- Ukraine's attacks against Russia's Black Sea Fleet have been causing more damage than ever, UK intel said.
- The UK's Ministry of Defense said the Russian fleet is likely losing its ability to defend its assets.
Ukraine's military has beefed up its attacks against Russia's Black Sea Fleet, causing more destruction than ever, British intelligence said on Tuesday.
The Russian naval fleet based in the occupied Crimean Peninsula has been hit by a series of major attacks by Ukrainian forces, including missile strikes on the Black Sea Fleet's headquarters in Sevastopol last week.
"These attacks have been more damaging and more coordinated than thus far" in Russian President Vladimir Putin's grinding 19-month-long war against Ukraine, the UK's Ministry of Defense said in a daily intelligence update.
The physical damage done to Russia's Black Sea Fleet was described by British intelligence as "almost certainly severe but localized."
"The fleet almost certainly remains capable of fulfilling its core wartime missions of cruise missile strikes and local security patrols," the UK intelligence group said.
However, according to the intel, Moscow's fleet is probably losing its ability to defend itself.
It's likely that the Russian fleet's ability "to continue wider regional security patrols and enforce its de facto blockade of Ukrainian ports will be diminished," said the UK's Ministry of Defense.
The fleet also likely has a "degraded ability to defend its assets in port and to conduct routine maintenance," intelligence said.
"A dynamic, deep strike battle is underway in the Black Sea," the UK intelligence group said. "This is likely forcing Russia into a reactive posture whilst demonstrating that Ukraine's military can undermine the Kremlin's symbolic and strategic power projection from its warm water port in occupied Sevastopol."
Ukraine's special forces said on Monday that 34 Russian officers, including top commander Viktor Sokolov, were killed and more than 100 wounded in a missile strike on the naval base.
Insider was unable to immediately and independently confirm these claims.
The Russian Ministry of Defense later published a video undermining Ukraine's claim to have killed Sokolov, appearing to show him at a meeting on Tuesday.