By Salvatore R. Mercogliano, Ph.D. – When Russia invaded Ukraine early on February 24, 2022, many predicted a short conflict. Russia drove on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv from Belarus, while other forces took over the Donbas region with the aim to annex these territories and seize a land bridge to Crimea. The former had been obtained by Russia in 2014. At sea, elements of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, and led by the Slava-class cruiser Moskva, set sail into the Gulf of Odesa to cut Ukraine off from the rest of the world.