RT by @mikenov: RT by @mikenov: I told you today that Turkey walked away from Russia. I also told you the relationship was rented, not owned. but i didn’t tell you the full picture of what Russia actually lost. because it’s not just Turkey. Russia lost an entire sea. and the country that took it from them didn’t even have a navy. let me explain. when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it had total naval dominance. warships, submarines, cruise missile platforms, all of it pointed at Ukrainian cities from the water. Ukraine had almost nothing to respond with. so they built something. small. cheap. unmanned. naval drones that cost less than a new car, sent against warships worth hundreds

I told you today that Turkey walked away from Russia.

I also told you the relationship was rented, not owned.

but i didn’t tell you the full picture of what Russia actually lost.

because it’s not just Turkey.

Russia lost an entire sea. and the country that took it from them didn’t even have a navy.

let me explain.

when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it had total naval dominance. warships, submarines, cruise missile platforms, all of it pointed at Ukrainian cities from the water.

Ukraine had almost nothing to respond with.

so they built something.

small. cheap. unmanned. naval drones that cost less than a new car, sent against warships worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

first the Moskva. Russia’s Black Sea flagship. the pride of the fleet. sunk by a country that wasn’t supposed to be able to touch it.

then another ship. then another. then submarines hit in port while crews slept.

Russia didn’t lose a battle in the Black Sea. it lost the Black Sea.

the fleet that was supposed to project Russian power across the entire region was forced to retreat from Crimea entirely.

moved to Novorossiysk. further from Ukraine. further from relevance. further from everything it was built to control.

and here is the part that makes this permanent.

Turkey controls the only way in or out of the Black Sea.

one strait. one treaty from 1936. and under that treaty, Turkey has the legal right to block warships from entering during wartime.

Russia cannot replace what it lost. not while Turkey holds that door shut.

Russia built its entire southern military posture around one assumption: that the Black Sea was a Russian lake.

power projection into the Mediterranean. leverage over NATO’s southern flank. control of trade routes. energy infrastructure.

gone. all of it. taken by drones that cost less than a single Russian cruise missile.

and now, in three weeks, Turkey hosts the most consequential NATO summit in the alliance’s history.

the subject: Ukraine’s path into NATO.

the country that controls the door Russia can never reopen is about to invite the country that just locked Russia out.

Moscow spent decades treating the Black Sea as something it owned.

it doesn’t anymore.

and the sea belongs to the people who were never supposed to have a navy in the first place.

— @itstaylorsmith9 Jun 14, 2026