The war in the Black Sea absolutely exposes Russian weaknesses and serves a lesson how to defeat a superior opponent, using technology and smart strategies.
The Russian offensive operations in the Black Sea have completely reversed. In stage one they launched a blockade against Odesa, Ukraine. The sinking of the Russian flagship, Moskva, abruptly ended this operation. Russians were forced to break off their blockade and withdraw to the occupied peninsula of Crimea.
In the second stage Russians tried to hold the line, while firing long-range missiles into Ukraine. The Russian-occupied harbour of Sevastopol, Russian-occupied Ukraine, was the lynchpin of this operation. When Ukrainian long-range missile destroyed the Russian headquarters along the submarine Rostov-on-Don in August 2024 and other warships in this sector, this operation fell apart. Again, Russians were forced to further retreat.
The third and current stage started with the withdrawal of the Russian Black Sea fleet back to Russia, making Novorossiysk the new headquarters. The operations from there has been similar to those conducted from Sevastopol. The greater distance to the combat zones in Ukraine should have made things easier, but the last weeks proved otherwise. New drones have penetrated Russian defenses and struck Novorossiysk multiple times, including Russian air defense assets
The strike today against the Russian submarine "Varshavyanka" marks the beginning of the end of Russia's last naval holdout in this region. Russians will never ever feel safe anywhere in the Black Sea. Together with raids against Russian shadow fleet tankers, this will further complicate Russian abilities to wage war against Ukraine, as well as any other states in the Black Sea region. I wouldn't be surprised when Moscow will soon "offer" a naval truce.
For the Asia-Pacific region this development will be of great importance.
From the comments
First, the Japanese sank the original admiral Makarov, and the Ukrainians sank the ship Admiral Makarov, which was christened in his honor.