Russia's military aircraft presence over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov has decreased recently, Ukrainian navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said during the United News telethon program on July 26.
The shift is likely tied to power outages and disruptions to supplies reaching occupied Crimea from Russia.
"We've been observing this trend for several days now; whether it will continue is hard to say at this point, but the fact itself stands," Pletenchuk said. “And even though the Russians have recently used aircraft more often to carry out strikes, this is still significant. Russian ships remain at their bases, and we haven't recorded any sea deployments.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on July 25 that Russia's efforts to block grain exports from the Black Sea region could once again threaten food security in countries around the world.