Russia will spend 7,2 billion rubles on the coastal defense of Crimea.
Moscow – Simferopol, November 6 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – 7,2 billion rubles will be spent on the development of the 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade and the 8th Artillery Regiment of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. This follows from the protocol of the state contract for the development of military camps in the village of Perevalnoye, posted on the state procurement website, Vedomosti reports.
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The 126th Coastal Defense Brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was created on the basis of the 36th Coastal Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy, most of whose personnel decided to remain in Russian service in March 2014. The 8th Artillery Regiment of the Black Sea Fleet in Crimea was formed anew and is the basis of the firepower of the combined arms naval group on the peninsula. Almost all the military equipment of the 36th Brigade, including tanks, was transferred by the Russian side to Ukraine before the decision made in May to suspend the transfer of Ukrainian military equipment due to the conflict in the Donbass, and Perevalnoe received tanks and other armored vehicles from Russia.
According to retired Colonel Viktor Murakhovsky , 7,2 billion rubles is a reasonable amount for the brigade and regiment's development, as the military camps were virtually unmaintained during the time the Ukrainian Armed Forces owned them. The entire unit's infrastructure—both residential and service—will have to be built virtually from scratch.
In addition to the 126th brigade, the ground forces of the Crimean group also include the 810th separate marine brigade in Sevastopol and the 501st separate marine battalion in Feodosia (created by merging the 501st and 1st marine battalions of the Ukrainian Navy). In addition, the group includes the 1096th anti-aircraft missile regiment of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol and several units that are still unknown by numbering: an air defense formation, an engineering regiment and a radiation and chemical-biological protection regiment, as well as a railway battalion in Sevastopol. According to a source in the Ministry of Defense, these forces and the rotational units of the Southern Military District are now sufficient to defend the peninsula.
Russia to spend 7,2 billion rubles on Crimea's coastal defense