| Baltic Fleet | |
|---|---|
| Russian:Балтийский флот Baltiyskiy flot | |
 Baltic Fleet great emblem | |
| Active | 18 May 1703 – present |
| Branch |  Russian Navy |
| Role | Naval warfare Amphibious warfare Combat patrols in theBaltic Naval presence/diplomacy missions in theAtlantic and elsewhere |
| Size |
|
| Part of | .svg) Russian Armed ForcesLeningrad Military District(2024-) |
| Garrison/HQ | Kaliningrad (HQ) Baltiysk Kronstadt |
| Anniversaries | 18 May |
| Engagements | |
| Decorations |  Order of the Red Banner (2) |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Vice AdmiralSergei Lipilin |
| Notable commanders | Alexei Orlov Adm.Korneli Cruys Adm.Dmitry Senyavin Adm.Vasily Chichagov Adm.Samuel Greig Vice Adm.Adrian Nepenin Rear Adm.Aleksandr Razvozov Cpt.Alexey Schastny Adm.Arseniy Golovko Vice Adm.Alexander Vekman Adm.Lev Galler Fleet Adm.Ivan Isakov Adm.Vladimir Yegorov Adm.Ivan Kapitanets Adm.Konstantin Makarov Adm.Viktor Chirkov Adm.Matija Zmajević |
| Navies of Russia |
|---|
TheBaltic Fleet (Russian:Балтийский флот,romanized: Baltiyskiy flot)[3] is thefleet of theRussian Navy in theBaltic Sea.
Established 18 May 1703, under TsarPeter the Great as part of theImperial Russian Navy, the Baltic Fleet is the oldest Russian fleet.[4] In 1918, the fleet was inherited by theRussian SFSR which then founded theSoviet Union in 1922, where it was eventually known as theTwice Red Banner Baltic Fleet as part of theSoviet Navy, as during this period it gained the two awards of theOrder of the Red Banner. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Baltic Fleet was inherited by theRussian Federation and reverted to its original name as part of the Russian Navy.
The Baltic Fleet is headquartered inKaliningrad[citation needed] and its main base is inBaltiysk (Pillau), both inKaliningrad Oblast, while another base is inKronstadt,Saint Petersburg, in theGulf of Finland.
The Imperial Russian Baltic Fleet was created during theGreat Northern War at the initiative of TsarPeter the Great, who ordered the first ships for the Baltic Fleet to be constructed atLodeynoye Pole in 1702 and 1703. The first commander was a recruitedDutch admiral,Cornelius Cruys, who in 1723 was succeeded by CountFyodor Apraksin. In 1703, the main base of the fleet was established inKronshtadt. One of the fleet's first actions was the taking ofShlisselburg.
In 1701 Peter the Great established a special school, theSchool of Mathematics and Navigation (Russian: Школа математических и навигацких наук), situated in theSukharev Tower in Moscow. As the territory to the west around theGulf of Finland was acquired by Russia for a "warm-water" port giving access for its merchantmen and the buildup of a naval force, the city of Saint Petersburg was built and developed an extensive port. The School of Mathematics and Navigation was moved to St. Petersburg and in 1752 it was renamed theNaval Cadet Corps. Today it is theSaint Petersburg Naval Institute – Peter the Great Naval Corps.
The Baltic Fleet began to receive new vessels in 1703. The fleet's first vessel was the 24-gun three-masted frigateShtandart. She was the fleet'sflagship, and is a prime example of the increasing role of thefrigate design.
By 1724, the fleet boasted 141 sail warships and hundreds of oar-propelled vessels (galleys).
During theGreat Northern War, the Baltic Fleet assisted in takingViborg,Tallinn, (Estonia),Riga, (Latvia), theWest Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago),Helsinki, (Finland), andTurku. The first claimed victories of the new Imperial Russian Navy were theGangut (Swedish: Hangöudd) in 1714 and, arguably, theGrengam (Swedish: Ledsund) in 1720. From 1715, the EnglishRoyal Navy intervened in theBaltic Sea on behalf of the German principality ofHanover, (dynastic home of the currentBritish monarchy) and more or less in a tacit alliance with Russia.
During the concluding stages of the war, the Russian fleet would land troops along the Swedish coast to devastate coastal settlements. However, after the death of KingCharles XII, theRoyal Navy would rather protect Swedish interests after a rapprochement between the Kingdom of Sweden andKing George I. A Russian attempt to reach the Swedish capital ofStockholm was checked at theBattle of Stäket in 1719. The losses suffered by the Russian Navy at theGrengam in 1720, as well as the arrival of a Royal Navy squadron under AdmiralJohn Norris, also prevented further operations of any greater scale before the war ended in 1721.
During the "Seven Years' War", (1756–1763), the Russian Baltic Sea fleet was active on thePomeranian coast of northernGermany andPrussia, helping the infantry to takeMemel in 1757 andKolberg in 1761. TheØresund was blockaded in order to prevent the British Navy from entering the Baltic sea. During theRusso-Swedish War (1788–1790) the fleet, commanded bySamuel Greig andVasily Chichagov, checked the Swedes atHogland (1788),Reval, andViborg (1790). An impetuous Russian attack on the Swedish galley flotilla on 9 July 1790 at theSecond Battle of Svensksund resulted in a disaster for the Russian Navy who lost some 9,500 out of 14,000 men and about one third of their flotilla. The Russian defeat in this battle effectively ended the war.
During the series ofRusso-Turkish Wars, (1710–1711, 1735–1739, 1768–1774, 1787–1792, 1806–1812, 1828–1829), the fleet sailed into theMediterranean Sea on theFirst andSecond Archipelago Expeditions and destroyed theOttoman Imperial Navy at the seaBattles of Chesma (1770), theDardanelles (1807),Athos (1807), andNavarino (1827). At about the same time, Russian AdmiralIvan Krusenstern circumnavigated the globe, while another Baltic Fleet officer –Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen – discovered the southern ice-covered continent,Antarctica.
In theCrimean War, (1853–1856), the fleet – although stymied in its operations by the absence of steamships – prevented the British and French Allies from occupyingHangö,Sveaborg, andSaint Petersburg. Despite being greatly outnumbered by the technologically superior Allies, it was the Russian Fleet that introduced into naval warfare such novelties as torpedo mines, invented byBoris Yakobi. Other outstanding inventors who served in the Baltic Fleet wereAlexander Stepanovich Popov (who was the first to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic (radio) waves[5]),Stepan Makarov (the first to launchtorpedoes from a boat),Alexei Krylov (author of the modernship floodability theory), andAlexander Mozhaiski (co-inventor of aircraft).
As early as 1861, the first armor-clad ships were built for the Baltic Fleet. In 1863, during theAmerican Civil War, most of the fleet's ocean-going ships, including the flagshipAlexander Nevsky were sent toNew York City. At the same time tenUragan-class monitors based on the American-designedPassaic-class monitors were launched.
It was the policy of the Tsar and his government to show support for the NorthernUnion Army in theUnited States during theirCivil War, observing and exchanging naval tactics and cooperation. In 1869, the fleet commissioned the firstturret on abattleship in the world –Petr Veliky. Furthermore, in the second half of the 19th and early 20th Century a strong network ofcoastal artillery batteries was created to cover the approaches to St. Petersburg,Riga, and other important bases.
By 1900, decades of modernization on the Baltic as well as the Pacific Fleet made Russia the fourth strongest country in the world in terms of naval forces after the UK, France and Germany, ahead of the US and Japan.[6]The Baltic Fleet, re-organized into the Second Pacific Squadron (route around Africa) and the Third Pacific Squadron (Suez route, under the command of Admiral Nebogatov), took a prominent part in theRusso-Japanese War. After the defeat of earlierSiberian Military Flotilla vessels, in September 1904, the Second Squadron under the command of AdmiralZinovy Rozhestvensky was sent on a high-speed dash[citation needed] aroundSouth Africa.
They stopped in French, German and Portuguese colonial ports:Tangier inMorocco,Dakar inSenegal, Gabon,Baía dos Tigres,Lüderitz Bay, andNossi Be (Madagascar). They then formed a single fleet under the command of Rozhestvensky with the Third Pacific Fleet, across theIndian Ocean toCam Ranh Bay inFrench Indochina and then northward to its doomed encounter with the Japanese fleet at theBattle of Tsushima off the east coast ofKorea in May, 1905, ending the Russo-Japanese War.
The Imperial German civilian passengerHamburg-Amerika Line provided 60 colliers to supply the Baltic Fleet on its journey. During its passage through theNorth Sea the fleet mistook a fleet of British fishing boats for Japanese torpedo boats and opened fire, killing three sailors in what is known as theDogger Bank incident. They also cut the underwater telegraph wire.
The decision to send the fleet to the Pacific was made after Russia had suffered a string of naval defeats in theEast China Sea and theSea of Japan off the coast ofChina and Korea near its Far East naval base and colony, at the hands of the newly emergentImperial Japanese Navy andArmy inManchuria. The one-sided outcome of theTsushima naval battle broke Russian strength in East Asia. It set the stage for the uprising in the abortiveRussian Revolution of 1905. That propelled the decline that would see theRomanov dynasty monarchy eventually brought down with the strains ofWorld War I, in theRussian Revolutions of 1917.
Following the catastrophic losses in battleships during the Russo-Japanese War, Russia embarked on a new naval building program which was to incorporate a number of the most moderndreadnought-type battleships into the fleet along with other vessels and practices adopted from the Western navies. In late 1914, four dreadnoughts of theGangut class entered service with the fleet:Gangut;Poltava;Petropavlovsk; andSevastopol. Four more powerful battlecruisers of theBorodino class were under construction, but were never completed. On the whole the heavy units of the fleet remained in port during the war, as theImperial German Navy's superiority in battleships and other vessels was overwhelming and it was difficult to communicate withGreat Britain's Royal Navy forces further west in the North Sea even though they had theGermans bottled up after theBattle of Jutland in 1916.
The Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet included a submarine division that had about 30 submarines of several classes and various auxiliary vessels, the largest of which were the transport and mother shipsEuropa,Tosno,Khabarovsk,Oland andSvjatitel Nikolai.[7][8] Some of the fleet's 355-ton submarines were made byElectric Boat Company ofGroton, Connecticut in the United States, main supplier and builder of subs for theU.S. Navy. Five of these "AG (Holland)" class submarines were prefabricated by the British Pacific Engineering & Construction Company atBarnet (nearVancouver), inCanada'sBritish Columbia, also under contract to the Electric Boat Company. These Canadian-built subs were shipped to Russia, a fellow Ally in theFirst World War in December 1915.,[9][10]
Four of these submarines, AG 11,AG 12, AG 15 andAG 16 were scuttled in the harbour ofHanko on 3 April 1918, just before the 10,000-strong Imperial GermanBaltic Sea Division landed in support of theWhite Guard in theFinnish Civil War. During the war the fleet was aided bya detachment of British Royal Navy submarines. These subs were later scuttled by their crews near theHarmaja Lighthouse outside Helsinki, Finland, on 4 April 1918.[11]
During theOctober Revolution the sailors of the Baltic Fleet (renamed "Naval Forces of the Baltic Sea" in March 1918)[12] were among the most ardent supporters ofBolsheviks, and formed an elite among Red military forces. The fleet was forced to evacuate several of its bases after Russia's withdrawal from the First World War, under the terms of theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk. The"Ice Cruise" of the Baltic Fleet (1918), led byAlexey Schastny who was later executed on Trotsky's orders, saw the evacuation of most of the fleet's ships to Kronstadt and Petrograd.
Some ships of the fleet took part in theRussian Civil War, notably by clashing with the British navy operating in the Baltic as part ofintervention forces.[13] Over the years, however, the relations of the Baltic Fleet sailors with the Bolshevik regime soured, and they eventually rebelled against the Soviet government in theKronstadt rebellion in 1921, but were suppressed and executed, and the fleet de facto ceased to exist as an active military unit.
The fleet, renamed the Red-Banner Baltic Fleet on 11 January 1935,[12] was developed further during the Soviet years, initially relying on pre-revolutionary warships, but adding modern units built in Soviet yards from the 1930s onwards. Among the fleet's Soviet commanders wereGordey Levchenko in 1938–39 andArseniy Golovko in 1952–56. Ships and submarinescommissioned to the fleet includedSoviet submarineM-256, aProject 615 short-range attackdieselsubmarine of theSoviet Navy. The fleet also acquired a large number of ground-based aircraft to form a strongnaval aviation force.
In September 1939, the fleet threatened the Baltic states as part of a series of military actions staged to encourage the Baltics to accept Soviet offers of "mutual assistance."[14][15] Subsequently, in June 1940, the fleet blockaded the Baltics in support of the Soviet invasion.
Finland, which had refused to sign a "pact of mutual assistance", was attacked by the USSR. The fleet played a limited role in theWinter War withFinland in 1939–1940, mostly through conducting artillery bombardments of Finnish coastal fortifications. Many fleet aircraft were involved in operations against Finland, however. Its operations came to a close with the freezing of the Gulf of Finland during the exceptionally cold winter of that year.
In the beginning of theGerman invasion the Baltic Fleet had 2battleships (both of World War I vintage), 2cruisers, 2flotilla leaders, 19destroyers, 48MTBs, 65submarines and other ships, and 656 aircraft. During the war, the fleet, commanded by theVice-AdmiralVladimir Tributz, defended theHanko Peninsula,Tallinn, several islands inEstonian SSR, and participated in the breakthrough breach of theSiege of Leningrad. 137 sailors of the Baltic Fleet were awarded a title of theHero of the Soviet Union.
For most of the war the fleet was trapped by German and Finnish minefields in Leningrad and nearby Kronstadt, the only bases left in Soviet hands on the Baltic coast. Another key factor was that the Finns had recaptured outer islands of the Gulf of Finland,Suursaari being the most important of them. Many of the fleet sailors fought on land as infantry during the siege.
Only submarines could risk the passage into the open sea to strike at German shipping. They were particularly successful towards the end of the war, sinking ships such asWilhelm Gustloff,General von Steuben andGoya, causing great loss of life.
The fleet carried out theSoviet evacuation of Tallinn in late August 1941.
During the Immediate post-war period the importance of the Red-Banner Baltic Fleet increased despite the Baltic being a shallow sea with the exits easily becoming choke points by other countries. The Baltic Fleet was increased to two Fleets, the4th Red-Banner Baltic Fleet and the8th Red-Banner Baltic Fleet on 15 February 1946. However, during the post-Stalinist period and general reforms and downsizing in the Soviet Armed Forces the two fleets of the Baltic were again reduced, with many vessels, some built before the Revolution, were scrapped, and the fleet was again renamed Red-Banner Baltic Fleet on 24 December 1955.[12]
In Liepāja the Baltic Fleet's 14th submarine squadron, call sign "Kompleks" ("Комплекс") was stationed with 16 submarines (613,629a,651); as was the 6th group of rear supply of Baltic Fleet, and the 81st design bureau and reserve command center of the same force.
On June 1, 1960, as part of the reduction of the USSR Armed Forces, the management of the 8th mine-torpedo Gatchina Red Banner Aviation Division and both of its regiments were disbanded. The 469th aircraft storage base was formed at the Dunaevka airfield, where the IL-28s of the disbanded 8th MTAD and the 128th Guards MTAD were transferred. The storage base lasted one year.
Far from being reduced in importance, operations of the Red-Banner Baltic Fleet during the early-Cold War period earned it a great amount of prestige and profile, with the second awarding of theOrder of Red Banner being presented on 7 May 1965 when the fleet was again renamed to Twice Red-Banner Baltic Fleet.[12] Although the Soviet Union poured resources into building up theNorthern Fleet and thePacific Fleet, both of which had easy access to the open ocean, the Twice Red-Banner Baltic Fleet assumed the important position of supporting the northern flank of the European Theatre in case of a confrontation with NATO.
This role was under-rated from theblue water navies perspective, but was seen as a highly valuable one from the strategic perspective of the Soviet General Staff planning. The Twice Red-Banner Baltic Fleet remained a powerful force, which in the event of war was tasked with conductingamphibious assaults against the coast of Denmark and West Germany, in cooperation with alliedPolish andEast German naval forces.
A notable incident involving the fleet occurred in 1975 when a mutiny broke out on the frigateStorozhevoy. There were also numerous allegations by Sweden of Baltic Fleet submarines illegally penetrating its territorial waters. In October 1981, the Soviet Whiskey-class submarineU 137 ran aground in Swedish territorial waters, near the important naval base ofKarlskrona, causing a serious diplomatic incident. Swedish naval vessels pulled the submarine into deeper water and permitted it to return to the Soviet fleet in early November.[17]
In 1946 the Baltic Fleet was split into two commands, the 4th and 8th Fleets
| 4th Fleet | 8th Fleet | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gordey Ivanovich Levchenko | February 1946 – March 1947 | Vladimir Filippovich Tributs | February 1946 – May 1947 |
| Vladimir Aleksandrovich Andreyev | March 1947 – August 1952 | Fyodor Vladimirich Zozulya | May 1947 – February 1950 |
| Arseniy Grigoriyevich Golovko | August 1952 – December 1955 | Nikolay Mikhaylovich Kharlamov | February 1950 – December 1954 |
| Vladimir Afanasyevich Kasatonov | December 1954 – December 1955 | ||
In 1956 the two fleets were reunited into a single Baltic Fleet command
| Name[18] | Period of command |
|---|---|
| Arseniy Grigoryevich Golovko | 27 January – 24 November 1956 |
| Nikolay Mikhaylovich Kharlamov | 24 November 1956 – 29 May 1959 |
| Aleksandr Yevstafyevich Oryol | 29 May 1959 – 27 January 1967 |
| Vladimir Vasilyevich Mikhaylin | 27 January 1967 – 1 September 1975 |
| Anatoly Mikhaylovich Kosov | 1 September 1975 – 2 June 1978 |
| Vladimir Vasilyevich Sidorov | 2 June 1978 – 12 February 1981 |
| Ivan Matveyevich Kapitanets | 12 February 1981 – 25 February 1985 |
| Konstantin Valentinovich Makarov | 25 February 1985 – 30 December 1985 |
| Vitaly Pavlovich Ivanov | 30 December 1985 – December 1991 |
| Vladimir Grigoryevich Yegorov | 13 December 1991 – 2000 |
| Vladimir Prokofyevich Valuyev | 11 April 2001 – May 2006 |
| Konstantin Semenovich Sidenko | May 2006 – 6 December 2007 |
| Viktor Nikolayevich Mardusin | 6 December 2007 – 8 September 2009 |
| Viktor Viktorovich Chirkov | 8 September 2009 – May 2012 |
| Viktor Petrovich Kravchuk | May 2012 – 29 June 2016 |
| Aleksandr Mikhailovich Nosatov | 29 June 2016 (acting), confirmed 17 September 2016 – 5 October 2021 |
| Viktor Nikolayevich Liina | 5 October 2021 – 22 April 2023 |
| Vladimir Vorobyov | 22 April 2023 – 8 July 2024[19] |
| Sergei Lipilin | 8 July 2024 – present |
Thebreakup of theSoviet Union deprived the fleet of key bases in Estonia, Latvia andLithuania, leavingKaliningrad Oblast as the fleet's onlyice-free naval outlet to the Baltic Sea. However, the Kaliningrad Oblast betweenPoland and Lithuania is not contiguous with the rest of the national territory of theRussian Federation.
In the immediate post-Soviet period, the capabilities of the Baltic Fleet were significantly reduced. From 1991/1992 to 1994/95, vessels in the Baltic Fleet declined from 350 at the beginning of the decade to 109 available vessels.[20] At the same time, with the dissolution of theWarsaw Pact, the formerly alliedEast German Navy was absorbed by West Germany and the Polish Navy no longer supplemented the strength of the Baltic Fleet.
Russian Land forces in the region were also sharply reduced. In 19893rd Guards Motor Rifle Division atKlaipėda was transferred to the fleet as a coastal defence division. It was disbanded on 1 September 1993. In the late 1990s the336th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade and the remnant of the11th Guards Army of theBaltic Military District were subordinated to a single command named the Ground and Coastal Forces of the Baltic Fleet under a deputy fleet commander.[21]
The 11th Guards Army remnant included the7th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment and the brigade that was the former18th Guards Motor Rifle Division, plus several Bases for Storage of Weapons and Equipment, holding enough vehicles and weaponry for a division but only having a few hundred men assigned to maintain the equipment and guard the bases. "warfare.be" listings in 2013 report that the staff of the Ground and Coastal Defence Forces of the fleet may have been disbanded in November 2007.[21] In 2007, according to the IISS, the fleet's aviation units were equipped with a total of 23Su-27, 26Su-24, 14An-12/24/26, 2 An-12 Cub (MR/EW), 11Mi-24 Hind, 19Ka-28 Helix, 8Ka-29 Helix assault helicopters, and 17Mi-8 Hip transport helicopters.[22] As of 2020, the 18th Guards Motorized Rifle Division was reconstituted, serving within the13th Army Corps, headquartered in Kaliningrad.
As of 2008 the Baltic Fleet included about 75 combat ships of various types.[23] The main base is inBaltiysk and a second operational base is in Kronstadt. TheLeningrad Naval Base is an administrative entity that is not a discrete geographic location but comprises all of the naval institutions and facilities in the St. Petersburg area.
During the 2010s renewed emphasis was placed on modernizing Russian naval capabilities.[24] In the Baltic, this process has proceeded slowly though there has been particular emphasis on acquiring new light units. New corvettes (of theSteregushchiy,Buyan-M andKarakurt classes) have been incrementally added to the fleet with additional vessels from the Karakurt, and potentially the Steregushchiy-class, anticipated in the 2020s - though not necessarily at a rate that will be sufficient to replace the fleet's older Soviet-era corvettes and missile boats on a one-for-one basis.[25] Nevertheless, utilizing Russia's internal waterways, additional cruise missile-armed light units, drawn from Russia's other Western fleets or from theCaspian Flotilla, have the capacity to reinforce the Baltic Fleet as may be needed.[26][27] A further aspect of modernization has focused on the build-up of Russian shore-based anti-ship and air defence capabilities in the Kaliningrad region.[28]
In contrast to the three other Russian fleets, the Baltic Fleet's submarine capabilities are extremely modest with just one olderKilo-class boat deployed in 2020, largely for training purposes. Nevertheless, a strengthening of these capabilities in the 2020s was being considered with various options (including both Improved Kilos and/or newLada-class submarines) apparently on the table.[29]
Training and readiness levels have also been emphasized to be of key importance. In June 2016, fleet commander Vice AdmiralViktor Kravchuk and his chief of staff, Vice AdmiralSergei Popov, were dismissed for "serious training shortcomings and distortion of the real situation".N. G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy commander Vice AdmiralAlexander Nosatov was made acting commander of the fleet, a position in which he was confirmed on 17 September.[30]
Analysis undertaken by Anders Nielsen of the Royal Danish Defence College in 2019 concludes that the Russian Baltic Fleet is oriented to contributing to Russian global deployment and expeditionary operations in peacetime. However, it is also the smallest of the Russian Navy's four principal fleets (in terms of surface warships and submarines combined) and therefore, due to its limited strength, would play primarily a defensive role in the Baltic Sea in most conflict or wartime scenarios.[31]
On Russia's "Navy Day" on July 31, 2022, President Putin reportedly indicated that the Baltic Fleet was to be prioritized for modernization in the coming years. The pending entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO - in response toRussian invasion of Ukraine - would significantly strengthen NATO naval forces in the Baltic, particularly taking into account the strength of theSwedish Navy's submarine fleet. Russian commentators suggested that a modernization and expansion of Russian submarine forces in the Baltic would therefore likely be a priority in the coming years.[32]
Deployed in Ukraine since the start of the invasion in 2022, the Baltic Fleet's11th Army Corps reportedly suffered heavy losses in the initial stages of the war.[33] In 2024, amid increasing tensions with NATO and as part of a comprehensive re-organization ofRussian Ground Forces, it was reported that the 11th Army Corps had been transferred from the control of the Baltic Fleet to the command of theLeningrad Military District.[34]
In 2024, the RussianBuyan M-class corvetteSerpukhov was reportedly sabotaged in Kaliningrad byUkrainian special forces, putting the vessel temporarily out of service.[35] In 2025, the Baltic was emerging as a flashpoint region in tensions between Russia and NATO, in particular around the activities ofRussia's shadow tanker fleet. The Baltic Fleet was assuming an increasingly prominent role in protecting vessels of this tanker fleet from potential disruption or seizure by NATO countries. The fleet has also played a more prominent role in trying to sustain the Russian navy'sMediterranean Sea Task Force in the face of limitations imposed by Turkey related to the use of theTurkish Straits, and in the context of theRusso-Ukraine War, which have combined to restrict the ability of theBlack Sea Fleet to fulfill that role.[36][37]
Owing to the significantly weakened position for Russia in the Baltic region, resulting from theSwedish andFinnish entry into NATO, the Baltic Fleet itself has begun to incorporate new approaches for potential operations in the eastern Baltic in the event of military conflict. Potentially this might incorporate greater use ofLake Ladoga as a possiblebastion for the Baltic Fleet's numerous but smallerKarakurt andBuyan-M class corvettes incorporatingKalibr long-range cruise missile systems capable of attacking targets at considerable distance.[38]
Since 2024, the Baltic Fleet has been subordinate to Russia'sLeningrad Military District (headquartered in St. Petersburg). Prior to 2024, the fleet had been part of the former and largerWestern Military District, but that command was divided in 2024 into the Moscow and Leningrad Military Districts, giving the latter command the dominant role along Russia's northern boundary with NATO member states.[39] The Kaliningrad region falls within the Leningrad District and serves as the principal base area for the Baltic Fleet hosting significant land and air forces, both to defend Kaliningrad and to extend Russian shore-based air and sea denial capabilities (A2/AD) into the Baltic Sea and region.[40]
Additionally, in 2025, theRussian Coast Guard was said to deploy about 33 patrol vessels of various types in the Baltic region, plus additional patrol units deployed onLake Peipus along theEstonian frontier.[41]
As of mid-2025, two otherImproved Kilo-class submarines (Mozhaysk andYakutsk, destined for thePacific Fleet) were also operating in the Baltic in advance of deploying to their intended fleet.[75][76][77][78][79]
Additional smaller Russian navy patrol boats are deployed in the Baltic while some may have been transferred to the Black Sea. See:List of active Russian Navy ships#Patrol boats
Principal Auxiliaries For a more complete list see:List of active Russian Navy ships#Auxiliaries
Among themateriel support bases of the Baltic Fleet is the arsenal (complex storage of missiles, ammunition and explosive materials, 2nd category), Military Unit 55443-ЛЙ (-25) (formerly the 15th Arsenal of the Navy, military unit 69233, since 2010 7082nd Technical Mine-Torpedo Base of the Navy, 1st grade, military unit 81263), located atBolshaya Izhora,Lomonosovsky District, Leningrad Oblast.
| Commander of fleet | | |
|---|---|---|
| Divisions | ||
| Navy bases inKaliningrad Oblast |
| |
| Navy base inSaint Petersburg andOblast | ||
| Former naval bases | ||
